Writhing Tongue (1980) Review

AKA Furueru shita.

 I actually went into this expecting a wacky horror especially with a name like 'Writhing Tongue'. However that was not the case at all, instead I was pleasantly surprised to find that this actually a great drama that shows the mental and emotional struggle of a couple who are stuck in hospital with their sick daughter who has a form of tetanus, as the doctors and nurses do their best to keep her alive and help her recover.
Now though its not a horror, the film does still have a couple of disturbing elements, there's some creepy synth music that comes in every now and again and few of things the doctors do to help the young girl which are quite discomforting. To be fair these elements still made me feel the film was gonna turn into full blown horror and it was about 35 minutes in that I realised thats probably wasn't happening.
The film was still really engrossing though, the acting was very good and there was some very nice framed shots, as well as a bluey/purple colour filter which is used a couple of times that I thought look really pretty.
the film also has a couple interesting dream sequence's that were integrated well and overall I really liked the direction and execution.
I think my only main issue with it, was that the ending did feel a bit rushed, it comes very suddenly and feel could have used  more time to play out.
Overall though I enjoyed this alot and thought it was great drama that was simple and effective, this is the second film I've seen from Yoshitaro Nomura and he's definitely impressed me so far from what I've seen, so hopefully I'll delve more into his work in future. Definitely recommended ****

Spirited Killer (1994) Review

AKA Plook mun Kuen ma kah 4 is a low budget Thai Martial arts film from the early 90s featuring a young Tony Jaa. Now the DVD set I bought put all the focus on Jaa as you can tell in the above international DVD cover. But he is in fact only in one segment of the film, but does get to show off some of his skills before making his exit.
The film follows a bunch of travellers out in the Thai rainforest, who must help a local village take down an evil man who is wreaking havoc in the rainforest, fighting and killing all who he encounters.
It's minimal on plot, but heavy on the action with a fight occuring pretty much every 5-10 minutes. The action is well choreographed and fun, though the film does get a little tiresome towards the end and feels a little excessive, like the opening setup which is needlessly padded out to almost 20 minutes.
Now the version I watched had an english dub which was of course awful and threw in some stupid humour, though interestingly when there was no talking they kept to the original audio. A thai dub was available but with no english subs, though I probably still would have been better off with it, its not like there's much to follow.
Overall the movie is fun to a certain extent but could have shaved some of its time off, even if it is only 90 minutes. **1/2

When Worlds Collide (1951) Review

Here's a 50's technicolor Sci-fi film that's pretty solid. It's about a rogue star and it's orbiting earth-like planet that are hurtling towards earth which will cause it's destruction. With no way of avoiding the apocalypse, a decision is made to build a spacecraft that will fly to the planet orbiting the rogue star and start a new life  for humans there.
Majority of the film involves all the preparation for the fight but it's livened up with some dramatic conflicts that make it a little more interesting. There's also a cool little earth destruction sequence that was really nicely done and has some fun effects.
Overall there are some very good moments here but they mostly happen in the second half and the rest of the film is perfectly fine but  nothing inspiring. It's still certainly a decent watch though.

Maniac (1980) Review

Maniac is a grimy slasher flick that follows the killer's POV. It's mainly made up of main character monologues and a bunch of killings that have some nice gore effects provided by FX wiz Tom Savini. It then delivers a very strange and pretty awesome ending as the killers psyche breaks down from what could be argued to be his guilt.
The killer is played by Joe Spinell who puts on a commendable performance but most of the supporting acting and dialogue is pretty bad and at times laughable.
The film also has some pacing issues and it can be a little too slow in places. I think there's one chase scene in particular that goes on far too long and lacks the suspense to merit it's length.
Overall Maniac is a pretty solid slasher though that bring some differences to the usual fare. ***