Sixth edition of the Film Diary; covering films I've watched within the span of a week, accompanied with a short review and rating. For those familiar with this routine, skip ahead, for anybody new to the blog, I will try to churn these out as quickly as possible, but there's never enough hours in the day. These reviews won't appear under the index of reviews as I prefer to keep that reserved for more lengthier entries.

Another varied selection this week; rural SOV horror, revenge capers, a killer robot Santa Claus, wild '80s Indonesian supernatural horror, remakes galore, and more. Read or don't.

Films watched between Monday 12/12/2022 and Sunday 18/12/2022.

Monday 12/12/2022
Video Violence (1987)

Director: Gary P. Cohen

Shot entirely on a VHS camcorder, Video Violence is part of a different age of low-budget filmmaking. Admittedly, I don't watch very many shot-on-video horror films. If I'm totally honest I really struggle to see past the picture quality, I find it extremely distracting and detracting to the experience; a crazy thought because I grew up watching movies and cartoons on VHS or taped off late night TV. Video Violence is gory and wholly dreadful; it's camp, hokey, but also manages to be rather charming. If you're looking to dip your toe in the low-fi world of SOV horror, this along with Black Devil Doll From Hell (1984), The Abomination (1986), Things (1989) (I know, I know, allegedly one of the worst movies ever, but c'mon you're here for a reason!), and The Burning Moon (1992) are fairly fun places to start.



Tuesday 13/12/2022
Rolling Thunder (1977)

Director: John Flynn

Sat down to rewatch this and to get Emily's opinion. She dug it. It's been a long-standing favourite of mine; I will never get tired of watching William Devane as Major Charles Rane taking on a gang of outlaws along the Texas / Mexico borderlands. "It's your time, boy!"

I wrote up a more lengthy review you can check out here.



Wednesday 14/12/2022
Christmas Bloody Christmas (2022)

Director: Joe Begos

I think I might be a Joe Begos fanboy... Though I don't think that's a controversial statement nor anything to be ashamed of, he's consistently made outstanding genre film for the last 10 years. Beginning with his directorial debut Almost Human (2013), a sci-fi horror film about alien abduction. His latest effort, Christmas Bloody Christmas, is kind of like a festive Terminator (1984); featuring a toy store's animatronic Santa, a repurposed ex-military unit no-less, running amok and terrorising a small town. During the finale Emily kept screaming "NOOOO, IT CAN'T GET UP AGAIN", but it seems very little can keep a killer Santa down! I was screaming for him to stop trashing the hipster record/video store. Also features more killer synth music by long time Begos collaborator Steve Moore. I actually rated this one three and a half stars, but because I don't do halves on the blog and as it's the season of giving, I'm bumping it up to a whopping four stars.



Thursday 15/12/2022
Mystics In Bali (1981)

Director: H. Tjut Djalil

This...this had been on my watchlist for many, many years; I'm almost certain I remember reading about it on the blogosphere, though I can't recall who's blog. At last the wait was over, a copy of the Mondo Macabro DVD fell into my eager hands. What a feast of black magic madness (a great name for a doom metal album) from Southeast Asia. Borrowing from both Southeast Asian folklore and Balinese mythology; more specifically the legends of the Leyak and the Penanggalan, a nocturnal vampiric entity that hunts at night for menstruation or blood from birth. Its form is a flying head with trailing internal organs that swing around underneath. Totally wild Indonesian cinema, the second I saw the head detach from the body and fly off, I fell in love with this. I cannot recommend it enough, essential viewing.



Friday 16/12/2022
Rabid (2019)

Director: Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska

I'm still a bit on the fence about this one. One part of me truly believes that you cannot remake the work of certain directors, David Cronenberg is undoubtably one of them, but another part of me really likes the fact that the Soska sisters took the plunge and made a movie about a woman's transformation, with you know, a woman's perspective. Unfortunately the resulting film is a lacklustre re-imagining that happens to fall just a little short of interesting, and in my opinion without Marilyn Chambers, you're already missing a major component of Rabid. The film succeeds in the body horror department; I'll keep it vague to avoid any potential spoilers, but specifically there's a scene late in the movie where somebody has mutated and fused to a wall. It's like something out of Resident Evil, utterly hideous! I initially rated this on Letterboxd as two and a half stars, but since I don't do a half system on here, I'm downgrading it to two.



Friday 16/12/2022
Barbarian (2022)

Director: Zach Creggar

Emm and I missed the theatrical run of this and subsequently caught it on Disney+ (horror...Disney...what?!). To succinctly sum this movie up in one word it would be "refreshing". Yeah, yeah, yeah we've seen stuff like this before, I hear you cry, but sometimes a movie just stands out, it grabs your attention and fills you with intrigue and wonder. I really dug this, I loved the opening, the Hitchcockian switch-up and misdirection. It was refreshing. A lot of fun to be had with it, I was waiting to see if Justin Long's character would redeem himself, or if he truly is a total scumbag at heart. The inspired flashback sequence to a Reaganomics era Midwest USA comes completely out of left-field, complimented with a 4:3 aspect ratio; all of a sudden I feel like I'm watching Gerald Kargl's Angst (1983). I really really liked this, no bullshit and only an ickle wickle bit of hyperbole. Check it out.



Saturday 17/12/2022
The Apology (2022)

Director: Alison Star Locke

Watched this with Emily on Shudder, during one of those manic, spoilt for choice "what do we watch?" moments. What we discovered was middling, but interesting suspense flick, that keeps you intrigued long enough that you want to see how it's all gonna play out. It kind of toys around with the tried and true conventional exploitation/(rape-)revenge tropes, but ultimately the pay-off is a little weak and unfulfilling. The two leads, Anna Gunn and Linus Roache, carry it with their strong performances; this piece could work on a stage, in fact it may even work a bjt better on a stage.



Sunday 18/12/2022
The Hills Have Eyes (2006)

Director: Alexandre Aja

Alexandre Aja's second finest picture. A stunningly brutal and gory remixing of the Wes Craven classic, and perhaps in some ways this is has an edge over the original. You all know the score, it was spawned during that weird 2000s period where every major horror title was getting remade whether we wanted it or not. We even checked them out, thinking how bad could they be? Well while some were bad (The Amityville Horror (2005) Halloween (2007), Friday the 13th (2009)), others actually made for a pleasant and welcome update of their older counterparts. The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), and Dawn of the Dead (2004) are 3 better examples of worthy remakes from this strange epoch. Make sure to watch the unrated version for all the splattery goodness.