Evil Eye

Half-way recommended....
This is gonna get confusing so hold on. I decided to take a chance on this low-priced, grindhouse double-feature cause i enjoy fairly obscure horror films with an exploitation angle to them. Problem is, both films aren't very good attempts at the horror genre. EVIL EYE struck me as the potentially better horror film but it was less exploitive and coherent than BLACK CANDLES and ended up being a very frustrating film experience, especially the ending when you think "was that it?". Actually, you will feel that way at the end of both films as one could say they end EXACTLY the same way. So if you don't like the way one ended, prepare for deja-vu with the other.

So if both ended up being poor horror films with even worse cliched endings, why the 3-star rating then? Simple. If you're looking for sexploitation in a satanic cult-themed horror film, you've hit the jackpot with BLACK CANDLES. It is surprisingly wall-to-wall sex-scenes(have your finger on the fast-forward...

Ignore the other reviews - Black Candles is cool
If your interested in THIS dvd, then I'll already assume your into these kind of movies, and get the euro-sleez genre. Black Candles is Bad-Ass! There are some great 70's Satanic rituals. Some pretty hot chicks, nudity and murder that I enjoyed. This super hot chick get banged by a goat during a ritual. Satanic Beastiality! How awesome is that? The transfer from the film to dvd looks pretty good. The other movie did suck, or it would have gotten 5 stars.

Black Candles is second only to Rosemary's Baby and the Ninth Gate
(This 5 stars is just for "Black Candles"). If you are looking for movies that portray a Satanic group from a traditional point of view, along the lines of Rosemary's Baby and The Ninth Gate, this is the next best movie, in my opinion. It's a shame that it's less known than some other ones, like these: The City of the Dead (uncut British version of Horror Hotel), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Black Cat (1934), The Seventh Victim (1943), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), Alucarda, The Pyx (1973), Anticristo (1974), The Devil's Rain (1975). Although the others I just listed are similar themed, they just don't portray, from beginning to end, the same type of steady paced traditional Satanist perspective that this one does. It still falls behind Rosemary's Baby and the Ninth Gate, and, like one previous reviewer pointed out, has no climax or finalized plot development at the end (like "House of the Devil" does, another recent movie). On the...

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The Blood Of My Brother

Superbly produced documentary about the Shia insurgency in Iraq.
This is flat-out one of the best documentaries I've seen thus far concerning the Iraq War. Andrew Berends captures the torment/anguish/ennui felt by a family of Shiite Iraqis living in Kadhamiya after one of their own is cut down by an American soldier as he was guarding a sacred mosque located within the district. It's difficult to discern whether or not the death of this young man was unprovoked. However the circumstances surrounding his death are moot and secondary to the primary motif running through the film: the reality of violence so pervasive that it is simply impossible to escape it. The cinematography is top-notch and combined with the superb editing gives the movie a narrative component that I've never quite seen in other documentaries. Highly highly recommended.

Interesting, but flawed documentary
THE BLOOD OF MY BROTHER documentary follows Ibrahim, a young Shiite man in his early twenties during a period of some weeks in spring/summer 2004. Ibrahim`s older brother Ra'ad was killed by American soldiers while on duty guarding the Kadhimiya mosque in Bagdad. The viewer is witness to Ibrahim`s and his family`s efforts to come to term with the loss of their loved one. Extended scenes show visits to Ra'ad`s grave or Ibrahim, his mother and sister recollecting. Ibrahim dreams of revenge and joining the resistance movement, but feels compelled to support his family by running his late brother's photography shop.

Interspersed is - often quite gruesome - footage of the insurgency and the turmoil in Iraq, ranging from streetfighting in the Sadr City slum in Bagdad (where a crowd of Shiites cheer at the wreck of a downed American Apache helicopter) to grim scenes of wounded civilians. The viewer accompanies American soldiers searching the homes of suspects and interrogating...

Raw and Real.
This well-produced documentary styled 'movie' will sober you up if you're still punch drunk from the State of Denial political press. Thematically focuses on a homeland's natural reflex to invasion and occupation. Throws you headlong straight into the mix - into Iraqi cities, streets, alleys, vendor shops, mosques, graveyards and homes of its citizens to make an uncensored point of the whole hellish mess. If you are clueless as to Middle Eastern culture (i.e. religious, economical and sociological mores) and wish to increase your understanding or deepen your perspective, this little movie will pry your eyes wide. After the movie, go to Main Movie setup screen and watch all the deleted scenes as it is all very foundational footage. Warning: This movie is stark. Recommended preliminary reading materials: The Iraq Study Group Report (can be downloaded in Adobe format on the Internet - about 100 pages long on regular typing paper).

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The Devil's Messenger

Two Outta Three Ain't Good
Lon Chaney jr. plays the devil in this 3 part horror anthology. He gives one of his female lost souls a chance to be his assistant on earth. Her name is "Satanya" and she delivers various key items to the main characters in each story. The first one involves a psycho photographer, who takes a picture of a strange girl before murdering her. Let's just say that she is not happy! She haunts the man in a unique way. In the second story (the weakest of the three), a girl is found underground, frozen in ice. An anthropologist falls in love with her and kills one of his colleagues for trying to study her. He then defrosts his "girlfriend" and a strange surprise awaits him. The final story is about a man who dreams of being on a dark street and entering a door. His psychologist convinces him to actually visit the place. When he does, he runs into a fortune teller who tells him that she will kill him by midnight. This is the best of the trilogy, and has a cool twist ending. All in all a fair...

Finally, Alpha Video improves quality
It is hard to resist the Alpha Video titles with their great cover art and low prices even after buying some of their early releases that were of such poor quality. However, the quality of their recent releases is improving dramatically. The Devil's Messenger fits into that category.

The Devil's Messenger is actually just 3 episodes of an unreleased TV series filmed in Sweden called "13 Demon Street." Curt Siodmak wrote and directed the series but was unable to find a US distributer. No company ever wants to see their celluloid go to waste, so 3 of the best episodes of the series were linked together using Lon Chaney as the Devil to form the Devil's Messenger.

A woman has committed suicide and meets up with the Devil (Chaney) at the gates of Hades. He offers her a deal if she will deliver 3 messages to the surface. This is how the three episodes are introduced. I won't spoil the stories. While this is no classic, it is nice to see Chaney and the transfer is quite good...

a cheaper creeper
Anything Lon Chaney Jr. is in is worth watching, but these cheaper creepers are a laugh a minute. Here he's the Devil playing games with three oddballs: One is a scientist so smitten with a girl he found frozen in ice he murders a colleague trying to defrost her.
Like I said, a laugh a minute.

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Deadly Manor

typical 80s slasher
not the best,not the worst. so bad it was good.silly,not to bloody, bad acting, but fun. see it in a hundred slasher flicks before,but hey, whatta ya expect?





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Shadow of a Doubt (1943) [HD]

Charlie, think. How much do you know about your uncle?
Having just watched Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943) last night for the first time, I was surprised at how good it was, and why I've never seen it before. I mean, I am a fan of Hitchcock, and I've seen many of his movies, but to have heard so little of this particular film seems puzzling to me, as it's an excellent film, and worthy of a lot more recognition than it seems to have gotten. Either that or I just need to get out of my cookie jar more often...

Anyway, the film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Thornton Wilder, stars a wonderful cast including Teresa Wright, who appeared with Gary Cooper the previous year in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, The Third Man), and Henry Travers (High Sierra, Mrs. Miniver, It's a Wonderful Life). Also making an appearance is Hume Cronyn making his film debut in a supporting role as a mousy neighbor.

The story involves a family in a small California town, and the impending arrival of a...

IN RETROSPECT, ONE OF THE BEST EVER
To say Hitch's "Shadow of a Doubt" is a great film would be fair; but in all honesty, looking back on the films (hundreds by now, maybe thousands) I've seen, there are few that have left such an indelible impression on me.

By now, everyone knows the story of Uncle Charlie and his adoring niece and how she slowly uncovers the truth behind her mysterious uncle's past.

What's brilliant about this movie is the way it foreshadowed and still influences movies today. Think of "Blue Velvet" and its portrayal of the naive small town boy uncovering a secret to his sleepy little town. Or even "The Third Man" just a few years later where, ironically, Joseph Cotton finds the truth about his best friend, Orson Welles.

What makes this film endure is its theme: The loss of innocence. the innocence of Teresa Wright's adoring neice (watch the brilliant scene in the bar where she sits down with Joseph Cotton), the innocence of Charlie's family and of...

One of Hitchcock's Greatest Films
Shadow of a Doubt is my favorite Hitchock movie. Among the reasons why I like it...

--Theresa Wright gave an extraordinary performance as Young Charlie, immensely sympathetic and appealing. I rate hers as the best acting job by a female lead in any of Hitchock's films, including those by Bergman, Kelly, et al.

--It was a perfect role for Cotten, an actor I like, who had charm, attractiveness, but to me always seemed a little weak. I thought the role, however psychopathic, suited his personality.

--The murder by-play at the family dinner table was great fun and played off Uncle Charlie's real murderousness.

--The slowly building knowledge that Young Charlie was realizing the truth about the uncle she idolized and the knowledge that no one would believe her.

--The slowly building realization that despite the affection Uncle Charlie had for Young Charlie, he probably was going to do her harm.

--The affection that Hitchcock...

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Vertigo [HD]

Earns every bit of its reputation.
Vertigo is one of those films that is so good, no one at the time of release is able to appreciate it. It was dismissed by critics, ignored by audiences and, to my knowledge, didn't win a single Academy Award (this last part isn't shocking -- Citizen Kane didn't win Best Picture). It's interesting that the reputation of this film seems to have grown substantially since the public found out more about Alfred Hitchcock's private life. For example, Scottie Ferguson's obsession with Kim Novak mirrors Hitch's own obsession with beautiful blondes, most notably Grace Kelly. Actors often bare their souls to the world, but very rarely are we aware when a director bares his/her soul. Those who dismiss Hitchcock as just a taskmaster director of suspense films should study Vertigo. He is essentially dealing with his own weaknesses and inner demons on film.

Vertigo also contains two great performances -- those of James Stewart and Kim Novak. Stewart reveals a dark side that might...

A re-release of a classic
It is unusual to see a director produce his best work after the age of 50, but that is exactly what Alfred Hitchcock did. Starting in 1948 with "Rope" and ending with "The Birds" in 1963, this was the era of his most inspired films. "Vertigo", in my opinion, is the best film of his entire body of work.

It is funny to note that when this film was first released in 1957 that it was not that popular in theaters and was pretty much universally panned by critics. In 1992, when the British Film Institute performed a survey of the world film critics to compile an all-time ten-best list that comes out every decade, Vertigo came in at fourth place. It didn't even make that list in 1962 or 1972. Part of the reason for the delayed popularity of the film could be that it requires repeated viewings to really gain an appreciation of it. Such repeated viewings were not possible for most viewers until the advent of home video systems and cable around 1980.

As for the film...

Hitchcock's film is great; the restoration has big problems
Vertigo is a tremendous film; if rating the film alone, I would give it the maximum rating. Vertigo deserves to have been carefully restored and preserved for posterity. The reason for my low rating for this DVD is that the restorers have seriously overstepped the bounds of conservation, actually changing the film for the worse. They have eliminated many original sound effects and created many new ones, to jarring effect. Evidently, their discovery of a stereo recording of the musical score so excited the restoration team that they felt they had to incorporate it into the restored print. As the original mono mix included effects with the score, this means that the restorers went into a Foley studio and cooked up replacement sounds--newpaper's rattling, footsteps, doors closing, cars driving past, etc. The result is VERY noticable: the modern, digitally recorded sounds have a sharply different quality from the analog originals, and the two are mixed together uneasily. The film...

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The Perfect Man [HD]

The Perfect Movie
This movie was critizized harshly by reviewers, but they were obviously blind to the film's greatness, as you may call it. Everything about this film is lovable, the story, the characters, the actors - Hilary Duff; need I say more? Yes, probably a thousand people said this movie was very fake but if all movies were relatable or true & possible, then all we would have in theaters would be documentaries. Bottom line is, I loved this film, very, very, much & I have watched it over and over & I still laugh everytime. What do I mean by all of this? BUY IT. Period.

Perfectly Okay
This is a cute enough movie with a cute enough premise. Hilary Duff plays Holly, a girl who, along with her little sister, keeps getting shuffled around the country by their mother (Heather Locklear), who leaves a town as soon as her latest relationship hits the rocks. She simply runs away, instead of actually confronting her problems. (Real good example she's setting for the kids, huh?)

Holly is sick of moving around, especially after the latest breakup has landed them in, of all places, NYC. When her mother starts dating Lenny, whom Holly perceives to be a complete loser, she concocts a scheme to send her mother flowers and love letters from "the perfect man" to keep her mother from going out with Lenny. Holly is helped by Ben (Chris Noth, total heartthrob), a chef who feeds Holly nothing but cheesy advice about love. Holly then realizes how simple it is: Ben IS the perfect man! Now if only she hadn't given her mom pictures of Ben and all these love letters and flowers,...

The Perfect Man
This Movie was great!!!!Hilary Duff is so beautiful and im her biggest fan i would recommend this movie to anybody or anyfamily out there.

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