'Live it up!' (1963) – Lance Comfort.

By no immodest margin versatile filmmaker, Lance Comfort's ludicrously likeable 'Live it up!' remains one of the perkiest, pop-tastic teen movie rave-ups Britain ever produced! This pop-packed 60s gem is given additional lustre by the presence of future Giallo icon, David Hemmings, hard rocking Humble Pie legend, Steve Marriot, and Ed 'Skippy' Deveraux delivers a credible performance as the stolid, fair minded patriarch of twitchy, pop-seeking son, Dave (David Hemmings). The score is exemplary, featuring outstanding contributions from, Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen, Sounds Incorporated, Gene Vincent, Patsy Ann Noble, The Outlaws, and bottle blonde rocker, Joe Meek protégé, Heinz Burt is in fine voice for the 'Smart Alecs' rousingly toe-tapping theme 'Live it up!'.

Remarkably well acted, with supremely engaging performances from, David Hemmings as the avid music fan, GPO delivery boy, wannabe rocker, Dave Martin and his adorably gobby cockney Sparra chum, Steve Marriott is a hoot! While dramatically sound, the real buzz of 'Live it up!' is the undeniably fabulous, eminently frug-worthy, wall-to-wall spaced-out echo-delic sounds of eccentric D.I.Y music impresario, Joe Meek. I strongly predict future cult status for the fiendishly frothy, exhilarating 'Live it up!'. It would be remiss of me if I failed to highlight, David Bauer's mesmeric turn as the serially scheming Mephistophelean producer, Mark Watson, who makes Kevin Spacey's sadistic, Buddy Ackerman in 'Swimming With Sharks' look like a timorous tadpole!

 

 

'The Deadly Affair' (1967) - Sidney Lumet.

I am a great admirer of, Sidney Lumet's moody, beautifully acted 60s cold war thriller The Deadly Affair (1967). A grim, deliciously dark expose of cruel, internecine machinations, the sole source of light coming from maestro, Quincy Jones jazzy, effervescent score. Due to the robust text and exemplary filmmaking, this still feels remarkably fresh! - Weirdlingwolf.

 

 

'The Premonition (1976) - Allen Schnitzler.

The sedate, middle class couple who adopted delightful poppet Janie (Danielle Briseboise) shockingly have their suburban quietude thrown into roiling existential turmoil after, Janie’s increasingly anxious mother, Sheri (Sharon Farrell) strongly suspects her child is in mortal danger. Distressed by the discovery of pretty, yet emotionally disturbed Andrea (Ellen Barber)in Janie's bedroom, she later believes, Andrea is using witchcraft to wish them additional spiritual harm! Sheri’s disturbing ‘visions’ suggest a tangible telekinetic ability, but her pragmatic scientist husband, Edward (Miles Bennet) is reluctant to accept that the danger encroaching upon them has a preternatural origin! Clearly disturbed, there's no doubting the entirely corporeal threat of, Jude (Richard Lynch) a charismatic carny whose benign clowning exterior belies a volatile nature capable of manifesting fearsome acts of bestial violence!

Maverick filmmaker, Robert Allen Schnitzler’s off-beat, genuinely unsettling Para-psychological horror oddity is steeped in preternatural weirdness and rewardingly eschews graphic gore for intense emotional discords which cut deeper than, Michael Myers crimson-slathered knife! While teasingly oblique, Schnitzer’s haunting, compellingly strange psychodrama ‘The Premonition’ is a beautifully structured, handsomely photographed, strikingly original independent feature. The exceptionally fine cast is complemented with Henry Mollicone & Pril Smiley's especially beguiling score. Schnitzler’s iconoclastic, extra sensory perception warping cult classic is both a fascinating 70s cinematic time capsule and wholly timeless nightmare. The eerie, darkly evocative themes of macabre metaphysical realms are certainly no less captivating when viewed today! I predict a great number of new fans shall willingly succumb to the hypnotic allure of this hallucinatory mystery.

 

 

'Viva Knievel!' (1977) – Gordon Douglas.

Bigger than Elvis! Faster than Bruce Lee! Cooler than Coltrane! This luridly leather-clad Liberace on two lightning-loaded wheels is a chrome-guilded, star spangled, sky soaring 70s legend! More myth than man! Three parts eagle, two parts deathless daredevil! This Gravity mocking, Big Cat jumpin', Snake River defying demi-god of the piston rod is a poon-pounding motorcycle satyr, turned big screen movie star! Evel Knievel is the golden cream of the stunt cycle scene! Deservedly regarded as B-Movie royalty, you don't need to take a leap of faith to worship, Gordon Douglas's freewheeling cult classic! And remember kids, mainline your revs, NOT your brain!!! As the turbocharged Viva Knievel! is the only drug y'all ever need! As the devil's weed ain't nothin to Toke about, maaan!!! Evel is pure white bread wholesome, gooey centred with sugar sprinkles on top, the sinisterly scheming, Leslie Nielson & Cameron Mitchell are Anthill Mob bad, sleekly glamorous shutterbug, Lauren Hutton is easy on the eyes, grouchy Gene Kelly's permanently pie-eyed, sky-high Motorhead Marjoe's one wacky racer and the whole corn pone shebang is groovily gussied up with a funking great score by, Charles Bernstein!

 

 

'The Retreat' (2021) – Pat Mills.

A young Lesbian couple dismally discover that their weekend woodland retreat yields very little in the way of TLC in this pacy, mean-spirited backwoods blood-spiller! Renee and Valerie are a warm, amiable, greatly sympathetic couple, the retrograde B-villains are deliciously despicable, and the grisly climax is immensely satisfying! While borrowing from 'Southern Comfort' and 'The Zero Boys', this gutsy, lean n' mean off-grid Canadian shocker proves itself to be an excitingly intense, fabulously fiesty femme-led fright flick with a pair of refreshingly likeable protagonists! The isolated, Evil Dead-esque cabin is grimly set against an oppressively vast, breathtakingly beauteous expanse of woodland, making a suitably threatening rural backdrop for our plucky heroines increasingly torturous travails. Tommie-Amber Pirie and Sarah Allen deliver compelling, energized performances, and composer, Steph Copeland's moody synth-heavy score proffers agreeably unsettling vibes throughout. Contrary to the erroneous claims upon the DVD cover 'The Retreat' shares little in common with 'The Hills Have Eyes' or I Spit on your Grave!!!! These blackened hills are NOT alive with the sound of cannibal mutants or rampant sex predators, as these sadistic survivalists have a far more sinister agenda! 

'The Retreat' might do to Airbnb what 'Jaws' did to sales of water mattresses in the 70s!' - Weirdlingwolf.  

 

 

'Memorial Day Massacre' (1999) - Christopher Alender.

Watching the rather insalubrious 'Memorial Day Massacre' the old saying, 'if something looks like ass, tastes like ass and smells like ass, then it's probably ass!' sprung all too readily to mind! But, on rare occasions, a cheap n cheesy, spit n sawdust S.O.V slasher can manifestly look like ass, have profoundly ass-like qualities, and yet, miraculously, some of its content still manages to transcend its conspicuously butt-like tendencies. Well, Christopher Alender's buck ninety backwoods slasher is just that kinda super-creaky no budget camcorder campout cheese-fest! Plus points are the okay-ish acting, crude fratboy banter and the surprisingly inventive kills. The main suckage comes from the generic text, frequently ill-lit exteriors and the hooded killer's goofy papier-mâché mask. So, why did I enjoy this fitfully amusing Dollar Tree terror spree? well, quite frankly, I'm probably far more of an ass than I'd care to admit! 

'A fitfully amusing Dollar Tree terror spree!' - Weirdlingwolf.

 

 

'Big Jake' (1971) - George Sherman.

This satisfyingly violent revenge western from the writers of 'Dirty Harry is powered by wickedly ornery performance from the Duke. Brutal, sardonic and fabulously entertaining, George Sherman's likeable roustabout western 'Big Jake' has some vivid performances, rugged scenery and a delightful theme by maestro, Elmer Bernstein. The blood-spattered finale is a stone classic, and the bonkers scene with a daredevil, Chris Mitchum hairing around the badlands on a motorcycle is the stuff of movie legend, mayte! Big Jake McCandles (John Wayne) has HEAVY Snake Plisskin/William Munny vibes!