Echoes From The Dead YIFY

DEAD MAN'S SHOES (2006) **** Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell, Neil Bell, Paul Hurtsfield, George Newton, Seamus O'Neal, Paul Sadot, Andrew Shim, Stuart Wolfenden, Jo Hartley, Emily Aston, Craig Considine, Matt Considine. (Dir: Shane Meadows)England's answer to "Taxi Driver": compelling vengeance drama with a blistering performance by ConsidinePaddy Considine, perhaps best known to American audiences as the Irish immigrant father in "In America" and "Cinderella Man", may be the least likely actor in recent memory to be seen as a lethal force on screen, with his pale white skin, harmless demeanor, and easy smile but in Shane Meadows' brilliantly unnerving vengeance drama Considine reflects his dark side with the intensity of an eclipse.The simple oft-trod tale of revenge for a right undone - in this case an English ex-soldier's return to his northern country hamlet for some bloody justice for the crimes committed against his slow-minded younger brother by a local drug- dealing hooligan and his cronies, while away on duty - is a cinematic chestnut offering many devices for the filmmaker to employ, namely the flashback narrative (here done in grainy B&W 8mm home-movie style adding to the gritty verisimilitude permeating the pulp noir at hand) and the anti-hero protagonist (Considine giving an implosively blistering performance of furious retribution), Richard, "Anthony's brother" - as he is constantly referred to in trembly depositions by each member of the doomed thugs as if whispering a ghost's name - begins his five day (attributed by the title cards employed) spree of justice. The brutality and vulgar cruelty - bested upon Anthony (a very good turn by Kebbell making for very empathetic/sympathetic victim needing to be vanquished) whose only crime was not knowing the common sense in seeing just how ugly his new 'friends' could be (again told in a certain amount of restraint in the scratchy black and white sequences, jarring as they are) - indeed are in need for swift retribution and when we first see Richard, a slight, malnourished pasty-white, scratchily bearded, porcupiney scalp of Considine's character we assume he is just one of the unassuming, local blokes of the pub/ pool hall that one of the goons is dealing drugs in. When he is accosted by the dealer he lets out a vitriolic outburst that scorches the skin and chills the spine for the sudden explosive invective that only signals a death-head's warrant of what carnage is about to come. With his bristly beard suggesting a burr patch and his dark brown eyes gone dead-cold with hollow contempt Considine echoes Robert De Niro's walking dead Travis Bickle in "Taxi Driver", not so much physically but in demeanor. A husk of a man who served his country only to return to a junk pile residue that was once his home and a desperate need to do some monstrous things in unspeakable ways to those who have unsettled his natural habitat. His Richard, however, has a soul and it aches you to its core when on display in a heartbreaking twist sequence I will not divulge here but it hits you in the solar plexus. Although I am not familiar with filmmaker Meadows and his previous films (and his collaboration with Considine including this script with a credit to Paul Fraser as well) he has a keen eye for detail and how to set an appropriate tone of absolute dread (nods to ace work done by composer Aphex Twin (AKA Richard James), Danny Cohen's cinematography and the editing team of Celia Haining, Lucas Roche and Chris Wyatt all make for moments of absolute dread and unease); a compliment indeed. While Meadows and Considine - friends in real life as well - smartly show only moments of graphic violence it is with the underlying theme of a good man gone monster is what underscores the visceral ice-numbing moments of fear and smartly not getting into a slasher type of exploitation horror film despite Richard's cheeky decision to wear an unsettling gas-mask suggesting the love child of Darth Vader and The Elephant Man.A real sleeper indie gem that deserves a wider release and by all means one of the year's best films.

Echoes from the Dead YIFY

A view on a pristine, impeccable beach. Suddenly the camera zooms onto an ugly, rusty iron drum. Behind a facade of beauty, a perfect holiday site, decay has set in. It's this surreal symbolism that often keeps a Jess Franco movie above the average exploitation flicks, and "Mansion of the Living Dead" continued his best works of the 70s better than most of his movies from the 80s. It was shot at Gran Canaria in a deserted hotel, where 4 waitresses arrive for their holidays. Although they are assured the hotel is almost fully booked, they meet nobody and they sense there is something wrong here. In a long, beautiful scene without any dialog, one of the girls walks to an old church, while a stormy wind rings the church bell and shakes the branches of the palm trees. As a counterpoint to this slowly created spooky atmosphere, Franco introduces a crazy gardener for comic relief and of course shows what the girls do in their hotel room for the carnal element of the show ;-). But horror prevails as an order of undead satanic monks - many viewers feel reminded of the Spanish classic "Tombs of the Blind Dead" here - tries to get hold of the chicas for sacrifice... Not perfect, but recommendable.

I watched this movie a couple of years ago; I believe it was in Spanish with no subtitles, but that didn't really matter. What mattered was that it was fantastic! I know 95% of the world's population wouldn't agree with me, but I always had a thing for old sleaze/horror movies which seem to be made just because the director had nothing to do, had had a funny dream he wanted to realize, or that he just needed money.As for this film, I couldn't understand why the title had anything to do with the action. I only remember some scenes with cloaked individuals walking slowly as though in some kind of procession. And there was a man (Antonio Mayans I believe) talking often to some girls, and there were scenes of various sexual intercourse; although I found the atmosphere in the film very serious and unpretentious.There is one very interesting scene where a couple of girls are lying on the beach, and suddenly a meat cleaver flies through the air, thrown from a hotel window high above, and lands in the sand just beside them. I was intrigued by that scene, quite intimidating.Only Franco (Oasis of the zombies) and D'Amato (Porno Holocaust, Erotic nights of the living dead) could make movies with this kind of enchanting atmosphere. A solemn, sombre echo from an era since long lost, which after the forgetful ravages of time still can like the bird of Phoenix rise from the ashes of oblivion to once again let its plumage shine with unprecedented respectability.

Apparently Jess Franco didn't think that Joe D'Amato's EROTIC NIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD was weird and tasteless enough, so he put his own two cents' worth in...Four oversexed waitresses on holiday spend their vacation in the ugliest-looking hotel in screen history. They must not enjoy the surroundings any more than the audience does because they're soon amusing themselves with exhibitionism, nudity and sexual encounters with the manager and each other. The manager, meanwhile, keeps his skanky wife neck-chained to a wall with food just out of reach, in a situation copied from Franco's own BARBED WIRE DOLLS. Hold on, folks, it gets better! The hotel is next door to a monastery that served as a torture chamber during the Inquisition. Before you know it the sadistic zombie monks are back-homicidal and horny. One monk's face looks normal; most are skull-faced knock-offs of The Blind Dead; and the leader's face looks like an under-baked pizza. Several murders and two sex attacks by the undead ensueand leave it to Franco to make the rape of a busty blonde by zombie monks boring. There is a cute twist at the end if you can keep your eyes open that long.Like most films by this director, MANSION OF THE LIVING DEAD is best watched first thing in the morning after the caffeine has just kicked in.

Evil Dead Trap 2 has moments of absolute beauty and scenes of frightening horror, often within the very same frame. It's about three people who are brought together by a serial killer who isn't just murdering people throughout Tokyo, but tearing their organs out and leaving them in the open for all to see.They are a projectionist named Aki Ôtani (Shoko Nakajima), who is forever behind the scenes of the movies she shows from the projection booth of her work, hiding from the world that she wants to love her but feels that they never will because she doesn't have the body or looks that see as ideal. And oh yeah, she's haunted by a small boy's ghost who pushes her into scenarios of abject horror.Then there's Emi Kageyama, her best friend, who is more traditionally beautiful yet also someone who is sexually excited when she gets near the murder scenes that she crosses her legs, so overcome with passion that her hardened crew is disquieted.And finally there's Kurahashi, the man that Emi tries to set up with Aki, who ends up being married and that's the very least of his secrets.Then everything stops making sense and gets really interesting.This is the kind of movie that you can watch and try to figure out the story and never really get there. That's because at its heart it is just as much a giallo as it is a slasher. It wears its devotion to Argento not only on its sleeve, but in every frame, with a battle between Aki and another killer that emulates the white sheets sprayed with gore from Tenebre. There's also a moment where the very theater itself comes to life as if it wants to destroy Aki, sending echoes of Demons through my mind (and yes, I realize that Argento didn't direct that film, but let's be honest, his vision is all of that one).Director and co-writer Izô Hashimoto also wrote the script for the anime version of Akira, as well as the movie version of the manga Shamo.This really has nothing at all to do with the original, but why should that both you? It also makes zero to no sense by the end of the movie, which made me love it even more.There's a moment in this movie where the neon of Tokyo is captured in one wide shot, but as you take in that colorful incandescent beauty, you notice in the corner of the screen that the killer is stabbing someone in the water over and over and over. It's a near-perfect shot and close to something that even Argento would be proud of. If all this movie had was that one shot - and it certainly has so much more - I would still recommend it to you. 041b061a72