Wanted to add a couple that I've pimped endlessly around here already...just wanted to add 'em here officially:
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Dark Heritage - The Final Descendant
My review from Unsung Top 100: From a critical point of view, this really isn’t a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. The actors are some of the worst that I have ever witnessed; the script is just as bad, and the budget makes Evil Dead look like the new King Kong.
“If it’s so bad, why do you like it so much?” you’re asking. Well despite its flaws, Dark Heritage has a sort of magic to it that would be the envy of even Ed Wood.
The story, based loosely on Lovecraft’s “Lurking Fear”, centers around a newspaper reporter named Clint Harrison and his quest to solve a strain of mysterious, brutal murders. The mystery leads him and his co-workers to an abandoned mansion deep in the woods…a mansion with a terrible, violent past and a shocking secret.
Even though he might be the only person involved that knows anything about filmmaking, the director is actually fairly competent (David McCormick, who amusingly enough was also an editor on the recent Wallace & Gromit film). If nothing else he creates some great atmosphere in many of the scenes, especially the tunnel sequences and the grisly spectacle near the end. Furthermore, the sepia toned dream sequence mid-film is one of the most memorable dream sequences since Hitchcock’s Vertigo.
Go into this movie with an open mind. By the typical definitions it might not be great filmmaking, but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed.
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Dungeon of Harrow
My review from Unsung Top 100: “How many times have I stood before this symbol of my family's greatness? And now this crest and I are dying together. In another time and another place, I might have brought honor and glory to the Fallon family, but instead I shall leave a legacy of decay and unspeakable horror.”
Just try and tell me that that isn’t one heck of an awesome way to start a horror movie. A little overdramatic perhaps, but in a film like Dungeon of Harrow you should never expect anything less.
At first the plot is really nothing new or exciting, but it soon progresses into incredibly bizarre and original territory. The lone survivors of a shipwreck, the son of a wealthy Englishman and the captain of his ship find themselves on the Isle de Sade, home to a more-than-slightly off his rocker Count. They are found and welcomed into his castle, but soon discover that not everything is as it seems. To reveal more would be to spoil the plot, but suffice to say I bet you can’t guess where it’s going to go from here.
The actors are all deliciously over the top, especially William McNulty in the role of the Count. His hallucination scene near the first really sets the tone for the rest of the film: Strange, whacked out and a whole heaping load of fun. Take one spoonful of one of Roger Corman’s Poe movies, remove most of the budget and a lot of the talent involved, add a generous pinch of LSD for good measure and voila! Dungeon of Harrow, ready to serve. Best consumed with an open mind.
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Two of my all-time favourites. Just fun, cheesy horror - nothing fancy, but they make for a damn good viewing.