Tag: Comedy Dining experience

13 Ghosts (1960)

Im a total latecomer to the William Castle game. And im not *As* ashamed about that as I could be. the reality is theres a smattering of Castle movies that got released time and time again here in the UK (Im looking at you “House on Haunted Hill!”) but more often than not the bulk of his output would generally either be ignored or released in the absolute crappiest quality it was possible to release DVD’s in.

I’d wanted to watch “The Tingler” for example for absolute years; since my early teens at least, but due to rights, or companies thinking noone was interested in Castle films or whatever the hell reason they could come up with almost NON of Castles films really came out over here. that is until the wonderful people over at “Power House” released volumes 1 and 2 of “The William Castle Collection” and it must be said that, while I didnt go in for them right away (the price was juuuuuuuuuust too steep for me to take a gamble on it) during a recent sale where the price dropped to around £35 I honestly couldnt resist it any longer. As it stands; Volume 1 is one of my all time favourite Bluray releases at the time of writing and I highly recommend you pick it up, as I really do consider it “Essential horror” if your into the genre.

Volume 2 is pretty good fun, but it’s way more schlocky, way less focussed on horror and way more hit and miss for me. While im definitely still glad I own it, Im not nearly as enthused about it in the same way I am for volume 1.

13 Ghosts is arguably the second biggest highlight on the set, and just for the ability to watch all 3 different versions of this film I can definitely recommend checking this one out. it’s not really a lifechanging picture, and if your absolutely in love with the 2000’s remake of 13 ghosts this will probably make you cringe hard. But if you like good hokey 50s and 60s campy horror. this pretty much is a must own!

All of Castles posters from this time vaguely look the same in terms of layout and design. I cant personally say im a massive fan of the look. and it’s the only thing im not massively happy about with the castle set from powerhouse. some newly commissioned artwork probably would have really made these sets sing. As it stands they just have the poster slapped on the cover…which is okay…but it does rather leave me wanting.

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The Worst Witch (1986)

So; Halloween 2020 is upon us and this year being an “Off” year we’re once again going for a grab bag of halloween goodies to help kick your month off with a bang! and while all of the movies chosen this year arnt really connected. I have decided to have a bit of a loose theme.

I wanted to try and do more “Family Friendly” movies this halloween. I know a lot of my viewers are parents and quite frequently they struggle to find good horror to show their kids without having to dip into their “adult” collection. So I thought i’d try to help out this year. All the movies featured will be movies that more or less the entire family can tune in to! I really wanted to make it a bit more all encompassing, after all Halloween is supposed to be a time for spooks and scares for all ages!

So here we have “The Worst Witch” the ORIGINAL Worst Witch. and arguably one of the most enjoyable adaptations. probably suitable for younger children (I’d say 5-9 year olds) but theres a TON of campness to help keep Adults on board. I really dug this one…and if certain events around a certain author who ALSO wrote a very popular series about witches and wizards have left you feeling a bit cold. then This series might just be what you need.

Unfortunately this film has never had a decent cover. The original VHS cover is about as good as it gets.

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Decoder (1984)

This was one of those movies I’d litereally never heard of until it was right on top of me. I first heard about it around the time I was looking for a decent copy of “Liquid Sky” and when I finally did find it on Vinegar syndromes site this was sort of sat roughly next to it in the “Recommended” section looking all moody and totally my kind of jam…unfortunately that was at the time that I sank nearly $200 into VS sale items (With shipping it pushed it closer to $230) so I decided to leave it…but that didnt stop me picking it up at the very next sale! and im totally glad I did.

It’s a wonderfully weird film and one that i’ve never really experienced before. it’s super hard to explain, but it’s almost like a film that leads more with sound than it does vision. and the pair marry up in such a way that normal movies and TV programmes just…dont. I can only describe it as it feels like a “Whole” experience. like; if one of these elements was missing the film just would be incomprehensible.

So with the next Vinegar Syndrome sale on the horizon. I say; go and look up “Decoder” it’s probably not for everyone. but if you dig it…ohhhh boy you’ll REALLY dig it.

The Official Poster for this movie is a bit too garish for my taste (It’s basically a giant hypno toad) and given that while frogs are a quite important part of this film they arnt THE film. I instead opted to use Vinegar Syndromes newly commissioned art work…which I feel represents the film much more faithfully.
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Robot in the Family (A Robot Called Golddigger) (1993)

Theres not really a lot more that I can say about this movie that I havent already said in either the 100 or so minute commentary myself and my friends did for this series or the below review. This film broke me and then remoulded me into a harder more analytical man. And I dont think I can ever truly go home again.

What I will say is that if you do choose to watch this (And if your into Bad and cult films I definitely recommend you do) dont say I didnt warn you. it’s one of the strangest and most unusual films I have ever sat through.

Poster is Shit. Says nothing about the actual film. Golddigger is love.

EDIT: I also realised that this was one of the “VHS Only” tapes that only had low (ish) res images of the cover online…so here’s a Full HD version:

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The “Reanimator” (1985) Comedy Dining Experience

We’re back! and after a string of on and off tests with Dischord, Skype and other “Over the internet” type recording devices. This may be the last Comedy Dining Experience we do while socially distancing. It was a decent enough experiment. but somethings not quite right connection wise. Whether it’s my Wi-Fi, Bens Wi-Fi or the fact that Ben could only get into calls via his phone to record these commentaries, it just didnt act or feel right (As the sheer amount of drop out and quality bouncing will testify)

We recorded 3 commentaries this way, Our “Robot in the Family” commentary was done almost entirely remotely and just about held together. But we also attempted a commentary for “Robocop” with the team over at “Inside the Nutshell” (Now rebranded to “Heros, Horrors and Cats”) Which was basically unusable. there was WAY too much drop out and a weird ghosting effect on the call which meant that more often than not the films audio bled into the recording louder than our microphones and out of sync by a couple of seconds. it got messy. and while I did spend on and off time trying to salvage something from it, ultimately when my Harddrive recently yeeted itself, the recording went with it (RIP)

Reanimator was not only one of the last commentaries we recorded over the internet, but it was also one of the last ones I edited before the aforementioned harddrive yeeting. so please be patient with it, but also thankful that it exists at all.

As it stands; I dont honestly know what the next move is for this series while theres still death on the march. Myself and Ben are currently looking into workarounds and other alternatives. But its more than just arranging the safety side of things, we’ve actually got to have a day or so free at the same time to meet up and actually record it.

Now the upshot is that we do have commentaries recorded right up until the end of October. We recorded commentaries for “You Only Live Twice” and our “Halloween Special” back in March, literally 2 weeks before the country fully locked down. But from November? we’ve no idea. one work around is potentially putting the bond marathon on hold and doing a couple of “Special guest” commentaries to fill the gaps in till myself and Ben can get back together. but honestly? we just dont know at this time.

Anyway! We’ll probably figure something out. and in the mean time REANIMATOR! WOO! so sit back and enjoy low quality garbled audio of me and my main man with the plan ranting about Hitler being security at the Arndale shopping center all punctuated with the occasional “Nope. didnt hear that man. you dropped off.”

Enjoy.

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The Burning (1981)

So! during this crazy crazy summer we had I decided to wing one more episode out to kind of…wrap the whole season up. Indeed the idea to do a season of “Summercamp Slashers” had been on my mind since I first started making reviews. I liked the idea of seeing through the summer months by setting a tone of “Fun in the sun” style camping, canoeing and killing.

the original plan was to do Sleepaway Camp 1 and 2, The Burning, one of the Friday the 13th movies and maybe throw in a lil curve ball…something like meatballs maybe. But, as the idea grew and the years went by it became more and more apparent that there was more than enough material to just spend a summer at the various sleepaway camp films. But that then created a bit of an issue for “The Burning” now a somewhat orphaned summercamp movie as I’d also decided, if I was ever going to cover the friday the 13th movies, I’d want to do them as a group rather than toss one randomly in here.

So working closely with the most excellent host of the Survivors guilt youtube channel. I decided to loosely bundle it in as a way of capping Season 7 off with a Red Triangle episode, another notch on my “Video Nasties” retrospective and the chance to actually get to the meat and gravy of this one.

I had already briefly spoken about it as part of my “B-movie hall of fame” series not too long ago. but I dont think I really got into the nitty gritty…that series was more “Quick overview > What I thought of it > Next review” type fodder…and as you all should know by now I do like to get fairly bedded in with these reviews.

So! as a nice summer treat and a little bit of a one off. here’s “The Burning” Season 8 has just got underway and theres plenty of weird and wonderful movies to come! but for now I’ve gotta get back to the cutting room. And dont forget to check out Survivors guilt he’s really very good!

(Im really not much for the original poster, But this one commisssioned for the Arrow Video Bluray release is Gorgeous!)
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The “Thunderball” (1965) Comedy Dining Experience

Once again! we’re back and I hope you’ve bought your phone with you because believe me, you’ll need it for some of this. As myself and Ben take a look at the 1965 Bond slog that is “Thunderball” a film that revolutionised the world of Underwater cinema. And while I can be grateful to it for probably enhancing movies like “Jaws” I also cannot escape from the fact that this is over 2 hours long and mainly consists of people swimming, fighting and choking underwater.

So I hope this commentary helps to eliviate what is otherwise, probably the dullest action spy thriller you’ve ever sat through.

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The “Robot in the Family” (1993) Comedy Dining Experience

One of the things I’ve wanted to try and do with theses commentaries is open them up a bit more to special guests. I think it helps improve the mix somewhat to get some new voices and new ideas flying around while we’re largely talking nonsense. Here; we invited our good friend Raymond Smith from his youtube show of the same name to join us as we watched literally one of the most bizarre and goddamn mental movies I have ever personally sat through.

He took it all in good stride and we had a real ball going through this one! in fact we enjoyed doing this so much we plan to do it again sometime in the near future!

So here’s 1993’s Robot in the family (Also known as a robot called goldigger) and I hope you enjoy watching my 2 co-hosts slowly lose their goddamn minds.

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The “Goldfinger” (1964) Comedy Dining Experience

So! while a bit belated (to the site at least) I thought i’d finally try to catch up on my backlog of summer uploads to the channel. over the past 3 months or so the room I use to write,record,shoot and edit all of my content for youtube has undergone drastic renovation (Basically stripping it right back to the brickwork and floorboards and rebuilding it) So I planned in advance to have a few bonus videos go out during this time, purely because the last thing I wanted was my channel sat abandoned for the entire summer.

So! Here’s the first of those videos, and it’s the continuation of our marathon across all of the James bond movies as myself and Ben take a deep look into 1964’s “Goldfinger” what is quite possibly my favourite Connery movie. for now at least…

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The “House” (Hausu) Comedy Dining Experience (1977)

A little bit late; but better late than never! here is the comedy dining expeirence commentary for House! the arty poppy horror movie that time forgot. Im extremely grateful that this movies picked up more of a cult following over the last few years because it deserves as many eyes on it as is physically possible!

Anyway; theres not much to say about this one! its me and my partner in crime and cohost Ben rambling while slightly tipsy over a trippy arty horror film. enjoy!

 

(LOVE THE POSTER!!!!)
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