So just a quick post here; I was very graciously invited to take part in a collaboration with the team over at the “Inside the Nutshell” youtube channel. They’re a really good bunch of people and I was more than happy to take part! (They’ve also helped me with my review of the 1981 equal to this movie “Shock Treatment”) so be sure to check this one out!
You can check out their youtube channel here! and I highly recommend you do as they have some great stuff on their and some even more goodness to come! 🙂
Thus brings to a close the second season of this show that I worked on. and quite honestly?; I think i’d consider this one my most progressive season that I’ve done to date. Not only did this season really let me hone my pacing skills a bit better (Something I really struggled with in the first season) but it let me experiment a bit more in being more creatively minded with my editing techniques and it was a real crash course in sound mixing.
While I can only apologise for some of the sound balances through this season (In particular my “Dawn” and “Day” reviews are pretty inaudible in places due to peaks in the music track I used that I didnt spot until the video had already gone live) By the time of the seasons close I feel I’d more or less got the balances right and at some point in the future I may well revisit a few of these season 2 episodes and address some of the issues I’ve spotted going through them.
But im very proud of this season because for the first time I felt like I had something tangible in the making that I could share with friends, or show to strangers without being worried of being attacked for the quality of the material. I mean, Im always learning (Even today I learnt something very interesting about VHS transcoding which will come in very handy when I finally get onto Season 5) but this season was largely guided as well by the advice and suggestions of you, the audience reading this.
It was during this seasons run that I started to set in motion some radical changes that would appear in season 3, and between the movie suggestions from some of my long time viewers (A serious thanks to you guys. you’ve really helped me keep going through the highs and lows) and the help of fellow youtuber and expert on all things SEO “Alan Spicer” I really feel like I’ve been able to put my reviews out there confidently.
This season built on the last one and set the frame work for what was to come. my first livestreams happened in this season, as did my first use of “Holiday branding” and my first forray into message boards and reddit (Something I’d never dared to do before) it really helped build up my confidence and I think this was a valuable learning season.
(Personal favourites included my halloween specials, my puppet master review and “Christmas Evil”)
So im going to try and keep this one a bit briefer than my usual posts that accompany these videos. Partly because I don’t have a tremendous amount to say, and partly because I’m using this post as a test of the WordPress mobile app and typing a multi paragraph analysis of my retrospective thoughts on producing these reviews from a tiny mobile phone screen is at best frustrating and at worst may result in me needing a new phone after smashing this one.
Dawn of the Dead is a near perfect masterpiece of the zombie genre. In my review I mention that it’s the Rosetta stone of zombie movies and I still stand by that. It’s not only the best place to start someone off on the genre who may never have seen a zombie movie before (because I’m told those people exist) but it’s arguably the best zombie movie full stop.
With near perfect direction, cine, colour and lighting, scripting, acting, soundtrack and editing; you’ll find it damn difficult to find another film that achieves so much in such little time.
My only memories of recording this episode was that I very fondly remember watching it on my old Arrow video DVD before immediately growing frustrated at the fact that the UK bluray was out of print and commanding ludicrous prices on Amazon and eBay. A good bluray of Dawn is currently still one of my “most wanted” releases.
Other than that, all I can really say about this is that I’m tremendously sorry for the sound mix of this one…it turns out that my speakers wernt properly balanced when I did the sound mix for this one and as a result the music occasionally drowns me out…I corrected this after my “Day of the Dead” review but this one suffers a bit more than the others…so my sincerest apologies…itll probably be one I’ll need to correct at some point…
(I often jostle between this and “Day” for my favourite “Of the Dead” movie…)
So begins the first of my video Halloween special series! Where every Halloween (Admittedly theres only been one so far…but hey! you live and learn!) I try to upload a series of videos either based on a monster theme or based on the season of Halloween itself!
Last years theme was “Of the dead” and dealt with 5 films featuring those architypical returners of the dead themselves, Zombies! Zombies as a trend have been dead now for years…quite possibly even a decade at this point. Zombies and Vampires have both pretty much been quite literally done to death since the turn of the century and I cant envision anything bringing them storming back to the mainstream public conciousness any time soon…
However! I’ve really wanted to talk about the initial 3 Romero zombie movies now for years and I thought with it being Halloween and there being so much to discuss about these specific zombie films…Well, the planets kind of aligned for me on this one.
The biggest problem I remember having with this review in particular was deciding which version to actually talk about…I’ve found that the ’68 versions been quite literally done to death and the 90’s versions decent but seems to be relatively underrated…One thing I definatley didnt want to do was 2 seperate videos talking about both films seperately but then; How do I cover them both and make it work?
I decided ultimately to cover both films as there own thing but to contrast them off one another when I felt I had something interesting to say about both or either one in particular…And while I feel I maybe could have gone a bit more in depth on the 60’s version in hindsight…at the time I just felt like it had been given enough of a platform over the 90’s version which just didnt seem all that well known…
(For the record: I still prefer the 90’s version over the 60’s version…I just find it has so much more to offer…)
Occasionally doing this show will turn up things that I either wish I didnt learn or something that will alter my own memories in a fundamental way. Thats what happened here with this Bob Godfrey compilation. As a kid I was a massive fan of “Rhubarb and Custard” I had a few video tapes with episodes on and I have very fond memories of sitting on my parents sofa with a big mug of hot chocolate just loving the weird and wonderful art style. those memories are still very firmly ingrained but now when I think of Childrens animator Bob Godfrey Instead of this happy childhood memory being the forefront of my thoughts on the animator. instead I think of shorts like “Henry 9 to 5” or “Biowoman”…
I know quite a few animators from my childhood who were involved in adult cartoons or animations but Godfrey stands out simply because of how unique his drawing style really was. its lively with squiggly line pretty much electrafying anything he put his pen to. it really brings life to his shorts and this compilation set is no exception. to me its what makes them as memorable as they are.
I dont think i’ll be revisiting this set again any time soon. But in many ways I dont think I’ll need to…the plots and style of these shorts are strong enough that there thoroughly embedded in my psyche from now on…So what I will say is if you have fond memories of “Henry’s cat” or “Rhubarb” from your childhood…be prepared to have that fundamentally altered in ways that are irreversable.
(I should think this goes without saying but yeh…this is pretty NSFW…)
“Love Camp 7” is a bit of a strange one really…while I can see the appeal of some of the later Nazisploitation films; This one being held up by the BBFC as a film “Too shocking to release” even in 2018 is really weird to me…I mean it feature by the nazis (But nothing worse than whats in any other Nazisploitation film) It features Rape (But nothing anywhere near as graphic as “I spit on your grave” or “Irriversable”) and for the most part its actually just quite a dull viewing experience…the only angle I can see being played here is that where as most rape revenge films end with the heroine getting her revenge and killing the evil men. This film kind of ends a bit open. its fair to say the Nazi’s get a decent amount of commupence. But from my memories it doesnt end in a definitive way.
Not that I’d actually try to seek out this film even if it did see an official relase. Its a very boring and vanilla title really…As a piece of history its interesting because it still stands as one of the last remaining relics of the “Nasty” era of british home video…but beyond that? meh…I’d still argue that the worst Nasty I’ve see to date was “Cannibal Holocaust” and thats largely because of the real life animal mutilation thats included throughout.
Non the less I managed to secure an australian copy of this film and while the film may not be worth it This review did give me the opportunity to really talk about the “Video Nasty” era of domestic video and it helped me to better improve my own understanding about these kinds of films and just how baffeling some of there choices were…This also served as my first season Finale (I went for a much shorter 12 episode season run at first; rather than the now more typical 18-19 episode season run.)
(Again; It really must be said. a massive amount of these films were sold due to how they marketed the the film poster alone…I mean…Just look at it!)
This was the first David Lynch film I chose to review on my channel and I chose it for a couple of reasons, first and formost I’m a massive fan of Lynch’s work (In particular all his works in “Twin Peaks”, Blue Velvet and Inland Empire…even if that last one is a bit overly long) his style is so unusual and tonally interesting it’s quite literally like walking into a dream/nightmare over which you have no control. Things just happen in Lynch’s films. they happen because things dont have to have a reason, life doesnt necissarily have a purpose and we’re all here just trying to give our lives a function till we expire. (A bit dark but yeh).
Lynch Straddles the line between Mainstream cinema and experimental video art and while he’s never quite been fully accepted into the mainstream. It could be argued that by many he is seen as the ambassador for experimental film to “Normal people” a wayward guide showing that the hard rules of storytelling and film making arnt actually as solid as first thought.
This subversive nature was what drew me into film making in the first place and what attracted me to video art ultimately…Eraserhead to me could be seen as the Catalyst that led me to where I am today so ultimately im very grateful to the “Lynch’s” of the world and we desperately need more subversive creative types in these modern turbulant times.
I also chose Eraserhead because; well. it’s a just plain weird experimental film. and when I think of Art house and experimental cinema my mind instantly flicks to anything from the chicken baby to the lady in the radiator to that surreal and mesmorising shot that is the films poster. The Red Triangle as a format exists to cover the kind of films that I cant do on TYTD. more extreme horror movies, Video nasties, erotic cinema, art house films. Stuff that I just wouldnt feel like I was doing justice placing it next to the likes of “Ring of Terror” or “Let’s ruin Dads day” and Eraserhead definitely deserves being in my “Red Triangle” series. This is another one that I kind of feel a bit mixed about in terms of my review. I feel like I didnt really fully nail down why I love this film in this review. I dunno; I just kind of feel like I maybe could have said more…so I may end up revisiting this one again in future…But yeh! for now; enjoy! and I’ll be looking to do more Lynch in future!
(One dose of nightmare fuel and insecurity about parenthood comin’ riiiiiight up!)
Otherwise known as “Taimu abanchûru: Zecchô 5-byô mae”; “Time Adventure: Five Seconds to Climax!” was the very first episode of “The Red Triangle” A show I came up with in order to differentiate your common or garden horror, sci-fi, action, adventure or kids movie with the more extreme forms of cinema. stuff like “Video Nasties”, Art house films, experimental cinema, Erotic films…That kind of stuff. I borrowed the title from a semi-famous run of boundary pushing films that comprised 1986’s “Red triangle season” so called because just before anything raunchy or racy would appear on screen a red triangle would flash up warning people to set there recorders running. in the case of my channel these were films that were either much more mature in there attitude or were distinctly not safe for work. This erotic sci-fi black comedy (With elements of a thriller in there somewhere) I felt would be the perfect candidate to open this series as it sets quite a clean line. Its also to date one of the shortest reviews I’ve written and much like “The Dragon Lives again” I do feel like I really could have said/done more with this film really.
(I like how tongue in cheek this film can be at times…its got a very unusual tone about it)
TYTD Reviews 