This'll be a short and sweet entry; I should have seen the inevitability of this, I can't write these fast enough, so I'm skipping forward into February from my Letterboxd diary.
Read, or don't!

Films watched between Monday 13/02/2023 and Sunday 19/02/2023.

Monday 13/02/2023
My Bloody Valentine (1981)

Director: George Mihalka

I make sure to watch this movie every single year and have yet to grow tired of its charms. A top-tier slasher; one of the most memorable from the '80s boom and forever anchored to the Western status quo in the same way that Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the multitude of Christmas-themed horror films are. For the uninitiated, a killer begins offing the residents of the mining town, Valentine Bluffs, in the run-up to recently reinstated Valentine's Dance. The location/setting is great, the characters are likeable, the killer looks formidable, the kills are memorable, the gore is grisly. If you haven't seen it, fix it next Valentine's Day.



Wednesday 15/02/2023
X (2022)

Director: Ti West

Ti West has generated a bit of a marmite response within the horror community, personally I've always favoured his oeuvre; particularly House of the Devil (2009), Cabin Fever 2 (2009) and The Inkeepers (2011), so I've always been surprised to hear from, or read about fellow horror fans saying they loathed House of the Devil. It's a stylish, slow-burner that exudes shades of occult horror classics like Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Devil Rides Out (1968), and The Omen (1976). Similarly, with X, Ti West revisits the '70s aesthetic, predominantly channeling The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), with echoes of Silent Scream (1979), Death Trap (1976), and Psycho (1960), but also paying a well-just homage to the era of porno chic; the plot concerns a group of pornographic filmmakers who set out to make a "good" dirty movie, and referencing the somewhat obscure Zebedy Colt roughie, The Farmer's Daughters (1976) and namedropping Debbie Does Dallas (1978). West's X is a love ode to '70s horror cinema; a competent slasher that effectively doubles as a warts and all exposé on ageing and its effects on the human condition.



Friday 17/02/2023
Init!ation (2020)

Director: John Berardo

A meandering, moderately interesting slasher that falls a little short of the mark due to hollow characters and inexcusable moments of predictability. Strangely, kept being reminded of Cry Wolf (2005); I don't think there are very many similarities, granted I haven't seen that film for a very long time and I remember very little about it other than the autumnal backdrop. Initiation is a sorority themed slasher flick that primarily deals with date rape. It doesn't help that there's so many other movies based in or around a college campus, or in a sorority house, even some good ones, so from the outset Initiation has a lot to live up to and sadly it doesn't quite make the grade. I'll never give up on these newer slasher flicks though, I always like to give them a fair shot with the hope of finding a gem!



Friday 17/02/2023
Mutant Hunt (1987)

Director: Tim Kincaid

Seeing the MGM logo on the spine of this blew my mind and I'm going to have to look into the how and why MGM acquired this. Especially as it's helmed by a porno director, though credited for most of those as Joe Gage, Kincaid had a short run of sci-fi/horror movies in the mid-80s with Breeders (1985), this, and Robot Holocaust (1987).
Now, I accept there are some neat moments in this, but for the most part this was an exercise in tedious garbage. I'm sure I'll come back around to it again sometime, but crikey this is a hard-sell so it's getting branded with "avoid." Check out Breeders instead, you'll have a much better time and even the 1997 remake isn't so bad.



Friday 17/02/2023
Godmonster of Indian Flats (1973)

Director: Fredric Hobbs

Wow. This is something special, by all accounts it should have been complete garbage, I shouldn't have enjoyed this as much as I did, but I fell hard for the Godmonster. The pacing is a little uneven, but once it gets rolling it's a fun ride. I was routinely laughing my ass off whenever I caught a better look at the titular "Godmonster". Grab the latest AGFA release, well worthy of your time. What a trip!



Sunday 19/02/2023
Prisoner of Paradise (1980)

Director: Bob Chinn, Gail Palmer

Big John Holmes, the Platinum Princess - Seka, and an appearance from the alluring Mai Lin. It's no secret that I'm a fan of the independent and collective efforts from Bob Chinn & Gail Palmer, Prisoner of Paradise is nothing short of a real good time. Holmes plays a shipwrecked sailor during WWII, finding himself castaway on a tropical island, who stumbles upon a Nazi encampment where two American nurses are held captive. I guess you could categorise this as "nazisploitation", it's resplendent in bad German accents and domineering nazi women. There's a bevy of scenes with John Holmes gathering and eating coconuts, hell there's even some explosions thrown in for good measure! Recommended smut viewing.



Sunday 19/02/2023
Too Naughty to Say No (1985)

Director: Humphry Knipe

It's a pity I wasn't too impressed with this one, thought it was a tad weak considering the talent involved; Ginger Lynn, Lisa De Leeuw, Jamie Gillis & Eric Edwards.
The plot is super thin and basically goes the route of being a succession of loosely connected sex vignettes with a meagre wraparound story. The flick is about two best friends at a Catholic girls school, one is shy and sexually repressed, the other is a wild at heart party chick who wants to give her best friend a carnal education through a series of sexual escapades. Ginger Lynn & Jamie Gillis' scene is the crowning achievement, but the rest of the film fails to really go anywhere.