The Beast in the Cellar - Reviewed.

The Beast in the Cellar(1970)

Director: James Kelley

Writer: James Kelley (original screenplay)

Stars: Beryl Reid, Flora Robson, John Hamill

So here we have another blast from the past The Beast in the cellar starring the fantastic Beryl Reid and Flora Robson, It tells the tale of two lonely spinsters Ellie Ballantyne (Reid) and Joyce Ballantyne (Robson) that live together in an idyllic setting within the British countryside, or is it that idyllic?

The film opens up with a scene that is very reminiscent of the opening of An American werewolf in London, This time involving a soldier that is walking alone on the moors when he is viciously attacked by an unseen attacker, The spinsters live near a military base and are obviously shaken by the news of a murder in such a quiet place, They are reassured by a local soldier that regularly visits them, But when another and another murder takes place this sends Ellie into a spiral of madness and paranoia, It then transpires that they may well know the attacker and are not letting on what indeed they do know.

It is said that Reid and Robson upon seeing the completed cut of the film were very unhappy at the way it was edited and felt that their best scenes were trimmed way too much. The film is a slow burner but the interaction and the conversations between both women are all part of the films very English charm, Reid makes and drinks tea like it is going out of fashion!

This film to me has a great feel, such as with Deathline (RAW MEAT) But as I said the pace is a lot slower, Not really that much gore either to mention but the performances are superb and as I said it's full of atmosphere and 70's English charm, So with the darks night coming along if you fancy a great 70's British film and this is one that is not seen around as many of the others from that era you could do a lot worse than this, well worth a look.

7.5 / 10

The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug - 2 TV Spots!

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with 2 TV spots for the forthcoming The Hobbit:The Desolation of Smaug. Coming to cinemas on December 13th the 1st TV spot is pretty much all you have seen in the trailer but the 2nd one reveals quite a bit more and it looks epic as you would expect of course!

Enjoy,

Jonny T.

Mayhem Festival - Day 1!

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with the run up to the great MAYHEM festival held each year in my home town of Nottingham, Running from THU 31 OCTOBER - SUN 3 NOVEMBER 2013 this years festival looks yet again to be awesome! What I shall be doing over the next few weeks is previewing all the showings that will be taking place and providing all the links and info you need.

So I shall start with the opening day. The opening day this year looks to be very special indeed with director Nicolas Roeg in attendance showing both his new film and the Classic Don’t Look Now. The great thing about the showing of  Don’t Look Know is that it is being shown at the special location of ST. MARY'S CHURCH. I personally cannot wait!! So below are the opening days times and movies. Enjoy and get your tickets booked!!

THURSDAY 31 OCTOBER

The festival opens up with the NICOLAS ROEG movie PuffBall with the director in attendance for a Q&A session, so if there is anything you would like me to ask just email me! The film sees him reunited with Donald Sutherland and also starring Rita Tushingham a personal old school favourite of mine. From the trailer it appears to be a return to the erotic creepiness he is best known for. 

Mayhem are delighted to welcome special guest NICOLAS ROEG, one of Britain’s greatest and most daring filmmakers to open this year’s festival.

5.45PM

PUFFBALL with Q&A with Nicolas Roeg

Dir. Nicolas Roeg, 2007 (UK)

Kelly Reilly, Miranda Richardson, Rita Tushingham

A young architect moves to an isolated Irish valley and finds herself fighting to survive when she becomes pregnant and the locals take against her unborn child. A chilling drama, adapted from Fay Weldon's novel of love, loss and paganism. Roeg mixes ritual and magic to great effect.

“Startling.” Little Whites

Next up on day 1 is the very special showing of Don’t Look Now at St Marys Church. Tickets are selling fast for this one as you would expect so get them booked!! Like last year’s classic screening of The Shining it’s great to see these movies on a big screen which is rare these days and with the audience being appreciative of the film that it being shown it always makes these screenings a little bit more special. Cannot wait!

8.30PM

DON'T LOOK NOW at ST. MARY'S CHURCH with Director Nicolas Roeg
Dir. Nicolas Roeg, 1973 (UK/ITA)
Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
A grieving married couple travel to Venice where they find the city in the grip of a murder hunt and meet two sisters, one of whom is psychic and brings a terrible warning from beyond. Roeg's visually stunning, terrifying and deeply moving adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier's story is amongst the best horror films ever made.

"Superbly chilling." Time Out

All tickets for this event are £10. Full Festival Pass holders and Thursday Day Passes holders are guaranteed entry to this event.

And finally on day 1 at 11:30 pm we have taking us into the midnight our HAUNTER, From the director of the highly acclaimed Cube and Splice this one looks very creepy to say the least and a great way to end day one.Phew!

11.30PM

HAUNTER

Dir. Vincenzo Natali, 2013 (CAN)

Abigail Breslin, Stephen McHattie
An incredibly stylish 'reverse-ghost story' from the director of Splice and Cube in which a teenager who died years ago reaches out to the land of the living in order to save someone from the same fate. Like a darkGroundhog Day, Haunter takes the haunted house film and turns it in on itself.

“Effortlessly insidious... wonderfully clever.” Fearnet

So there you have it folks the full line up for day one of MAYHEM, No doubt the day will also include a couple or 3 light ales of course, hope to see you there!

Jonny T.

MAYHEM FESTIVAL LINK FOR TICKETS AND MORE INFO.

http://www.broadway.org.uk/mayhem_film_festival

Have a film on me Friday! Trapped - 1982

A group of college students come across a redneck in the wilderness following his wife with a rifle. He begins to pursue them through the woods.

Director:

 William Fruet

Writer:

 John Beaird

Stars:

 Henry Silva, Nicholas Campbell, Barbara Gordon 

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with a have a film on me Friday! This week i bring you a sleazy canuksploitation fest that is known as Trapped! The usual scenario of low budget and psycho red neck on the loose! 

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Jonny T.

Curse of Chucky - Reviewed

“Based on a true story, From the producer of Paranormal Activity, Scripted by a man that has seen Saw, From the same team that brought you Insidious” None of the previous statements are true and I’m glad! In a pretty bland in my opinion year for horror we have the return of everyone’s favourite doll Chucky! Curse of Chucky is once again written and directed by Don Mancini and we also still have Brad Dourif as the voice of Chucky, so all good there then. So I do have to wonder why it has taken them 9 years to get this film up and running and to say it has a low budget it is a shame to see it go straight to DVD when the likes of various remakes/reboots have gotten Cinema releases, not saying that this is a classic but it’s certainly better directed and acted than many a movie I have seen in the cinemas but I guess that’s the way that Hollywood Rolls.

So, The story opens with Nica (Played by Brad Dourif’s Daughter Fiona) who lives with her mother Sarah (Chantal Quesnelle), Nica is wheelchair bound and has what appears to be a happy relationship with Sarah. Then comes a knock on the door and a delivery guy delivers a rather large box and starts to hit on Nica of which she is very flattered. We then see Sarah who wonders what it is open the box to reveal a brand new shiny Chucky Doll, Her and Nica have no recollection of ever ordering such a doll so Sarah put’s him straight in the bin, Bad move! Later that day Nica discovers Sarah dead with blood oozing out. So poor old Nica is left on her own but she has a somewhat greedy sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti) who comes to stay with her husband and daughter and their new nanny as well as a priest. It transpires that her sister is not really there for the love and care of her sister but purely for her own means and broaches the subject of selling the large house much to the annoyance of Nica.

Then the little girl tells her mum she really need to pee, nice, They take her up stairs, she does her pee then thinks she see’s something moving behind the shower curtain, pull it back and yep you've guessed it, Chucky!  Her brand new toy.  She takes Chucky into the kitchen whilst Nica prepares a family meal and when they are all out of the room Chucky awakens and sprinkles a liberal dose of rat poison in one of the dinners, Baaaaaad Chucky! So you get the meal scene and it’s kind of like a Russian roulette, you don’t really know who has the poisoned meal but with each one of them at various points showing signs that they may be poisoned, I shan't tell you who it is but the outcome is great!

So it’s all now in place, With a few people now in it  there’s your body count sorted. If you are familiar with the previous child’s play movies you pretty much know what to expect but I will say this, the gore level has been ramped up significantly to say the least, with some of the deaths easily rivalling the deaths in The Final Destination Series. The direction by Mancini is great with some really mad angles and shots so full kudos to him. Fiona plays the part of Nica excellently as the other cast members are also pretty good it has to be said. The film plays out pretty much as you would expect but does do a great job in the form of flashbacks and ties up loose ends that may have been left open throughout the series, Some good plot twists, Great Gore and the usual fantastic Chucky sayings still makes him one evil little fucker, oh and one last point, make sure to watch through the credits for a great ending. So all in all, it’s a child’s play film but in my opinion a lot better than the last 2 in the series, I personally wasn't expecting much and was pleasantly surprised.

7/10

Jonny t.  

The Walking Dead Season 4 - New Promo Clips!

Hello Folks,

Jonny T here with some new clips/promo's for AMC's The Walking Dead Season 4.Set to air in the U.S.A on October 18th these new clips look like the action is still going strong and the zombies are once again plentiful! So whilst we are all coming down from the end of the Awesome Breaking Bad the return of The Walking Dead is just around the corner,

Enjoy!

Jonny T.

Is Censorship Dead?

Is Censorship Dead?

Now lately I have been planning a holiday to Japan next year, A once in a lifetime opportunity I cannot wait to do, the flights are long, very long, 8 hours from Manchester UK to Dubai then 7 hours from Dubai to Osaka Japan, What is there to do on such a long flight apart from watch films right? Now the flight I am on serves up free alcohol which is great but with flying to Dubai with their very strict laws I have decided that it’s probably for the best not to arrive tipsy so I have gone for the option of films!

This got me thinking of the best way to watch some films and indeed what to watch, I have checked on the airline site and they give you a list of what is currently playing, pretty much it has to be said they show as you would expect mainstream Hollywood tosh, Romantic Comedies and Kid’s movies, No spider Baby here I'm afraid. So I have decided to take the jump and purchase a decent Tablet, not an iPad as the prices are ridiculous and me and I-tunes just do not get along.

So whilst perusing my film collection various titles such as my favourite ever movie Dawn of the Dead and classics such as Todd Browning’s Freaks sprung to mind as great travel viewing but then I had a thought, what if these films are banned in the countries I will be visiting? Would I get into trouble for taking them? What if they can and will check the contents of my Tablet? Now it may sound a bit paranoid I guess but you never know.

This brings me on to the main point of is Censorship dead? Because face facts, Most countries do have varying degrees of censorship  laws when it comes to the art medium whether it be films. Music or in some cases even TV, Now I know I could just “Google” it which indeed I already have and it still seems pretty unclear, With the UK having the good old B.B.F.C and the U.S.A having the good old M.P.A.A the guidelines in these countries are pretty straight forward and to find lists of Banned or certain cuts of movies but with Asia it’s a very difficult thing to actually define.

Don’t get me wrong I see the argument on both sides for Censorship but anything you want now is so easy to get hold off, just Google it! I am all for the point of children not seeing certain stuff until they reach an age of which is deemed acceptable but everyone is different, now I'm not talking about internet porn here just mainly films and TV. Basically if you live in a so called westernised style country you can get to see what you want through various means,  fully uncut versions of movies that are banned in the UK or vice versa in the U.S.A, These are not just accessible through the rise and fall of Torrent sites but just have a look at your phone’s app store, whether it be an I-Phone or Android device you will find apps within their stores where you can watch movies and TV shows instant streaming without paying to watch them. I also have at home Netflix and recently saw on-line that you can through various programmes out there on the internet that you can even hack your Netflix account thus allowing you to view the American Netflix with literally thousands more titles, I personally haven’t bothered doing this as it involves downloading programmes that I have never heard of but if you were to do it surely with every single movie on there not one of them would have been Certified by the B.B.F.C so how does that work? Now I have to say that I have no idea, is there censorship on YouTube? There is to a degree but it seems its governed by them and them alone, I could film something today, say a car crash on my street, within literally minutes it’s there on YouTube, Looking into the policies of YouTube they will react and ban video but only if there is a significant number of complaints, so basically whatever is up there is worldwide instantly and dodges every countries censorship laws.Odd.

Recent developments in the world of TV and Film has seen the launch as a Beta test in the states of Google Fibre, a super-fast broadband that is 1000Mbps with the TV box having settings such as record 8 TV shows at a time and a massive storage system of 2TB, They have launched this and teamed up with YouTube and have pumped in millions of Dollars to set up various YouTube TV channels such as it seems the recognition of the worldwide power of YouTube users and views, now this is pretty exciting times for such things but who will be doing the Censorship? It comes down to the fact that pretty much everyone in the world who has access to the internet has a voice, this is some respects is a good thing as with the internet age it has certainly globally raised awareness of Homophobia, Bullying, Oppression and wrong doing by many a worldwide government. These acts have indeed opened the minds and awareness of many people including myself of events that are happing daily, so my basic point is that how fast technology is moving, just think about it, less than 30 years no-one had access to anywhere near the information we have nowadays, you had to believe and trust what your daily newspaper told you, you had to trust what the TV News told you, But now just Google it and you get so many variations on so many websites it’s mind blowing.

Of course you have you conspiracy theorists that believe that we are now living in the most censored times that mankind has ever know but how much and how far do you go? Yes there are indeed still declassified government documents that are revealed today such as the recent news story that the U.S.A government covered up a “Accident” where a Bomber broke up in mid-air in the 60’s and dropped a nuclear bomb on the states that was 2.5 times bigger than the one dropped on Hiroshima but luckily it failed to explode, these stories and documents will continue to be released. So which should you believe, what is censored, I guess you have to trust your gut instinct and go with what you believe, But the fact remains that nowadays we have the access without censorship to make a choice and don’t have to believe what you see and are told, Unless of course you live in North Korea in which case how are you accessing this??

Jonny T. 

Censorship_in_Japan

Interesting Piece in Time Out Dubai.

The Censorship of YouTube