The regular one day taster was held this year at the Prince Charles and a fine
and varied programme of films it turned out to be.
Embodiment of Evil was first up. A continuation of the Coffin Joe series and thus an acquired taste which I do not have. A lot of the imagery was well
done and the quality of the film noticeably higher than I remember from the
early films.
Shuttle was darkly lit even though taking place at night and rather confusingly filmed though the basic story was interesting and several of the
effects well done. In some ways it was a refreshing (!) change for the feisty
heroine to lose out after coming close to success more than once. The sort
of film that would, in the good old days, have been a fine second feature if
cut back somewhat.
Repo! The Genetic Opera was a hoot as long as it was taken anything but
seriously. A sort of 'Little Shop of Horrors' for tomorrow with some good
performances from Paul Sorvino and others though the female lead was rather under-powered voicewise.
Lesbian Vampire Killers was the surprise film with this being its premiere as
there had been some problem with what should have been the first showing.
The comic duo is not one I know since my funny bone started to go when
Morecambe and Wise stopped but they were pleasant enough in this small
undemanding film. Some critics have subsequently bruied it under a weight
of comment the film is just not meant to have and some of the comments
about the mainly female cast were a little cruel though none are great
beauties: Myanna Buring who is the female lead is rather nice, however.
Taken as a mindless bit of fun, it worked.
Not Quite Hollywood is a lengthy documentary on Australian cinema from the
60s to date outside the 'serious' efforts of such as Peter Weir. Dealing with
smutty humour, nudity, shock and gore followed by horror it had a fine
selection of clips though the inane remarks of the inevitable Quentin Tarantino added nothing.
We skipped the final film as we have a copy though my recollection of it is
that it has some good gore effects and little else.