Dario Argento and others thrillers/horror movies directors

[Winterwulf]

Yes, it's a cinematic classic. Toss-up for me between it and "Get Carter" for the title of best UK crime thriller, I think.

[cthulhu]

You got a point there mentioning Get Carter in comparison, also a classic. Any other good uk crime thrillers which come to mind?
I also love the Harry Palmer movies The Ipcress File and especially The Billion Dollar Brain, both starring Michael Caine and the latter one is directed by Ken Russel and i find it a very special one. Kind of a surreal strange take on an agent story.

I just saw
Demon Seed - by Donald Camell, 1977

and i was thrilled. A very interesting story about AI and regarding the production year, this movie was way ahead of its time. Of course it is a little outdated but for me it worked on every level. Great sci-fi story, good actors, good cinematography and also the sfx are great and were very nice to watch.

If you liked The Matrix and more the story and question it raised about virtual reality, reality and consciousness i recommend:

The Thirteenth Floor - Josef Rusnak, 1999

This one was surprisingly good and i don't know why i hadn't seen this one earlier. I only got the dvd and it looks a bit less than it could look on that format and i would like to have a restored version on bluray. It seems a bit low-budget sometimes, but it has also great images and the story is what counts. A very suspenseful, clever take on virtual reality with a bit of film noir style in it.

@Guillaume
Were you able to watch Black Sunday and what are your thoughts? And more important: could you turn off the subtitles??

[Guillaume]

@Guillaume
Were you able to watch Black Sunday and what are your thoughts? And more important: could you turn off the subtitles??

No, I haven't seen the Blu-ray of "Black Sunday" yet, but I'll let you know when I do.

Yesterday afternoon I saw SCREAM 7 in theaters and I had a good time overall, especially because the excellent Neve Campbell is back as Sidney Prescott and carries the film on her shoulders. Otherwise, the film is just okay because the supporting characters aren't very interesting or underwritten, and the director doesn't quite have Wes Craven's flair for suspense, tension, and chase scenes. The last half hour of the film is also a bit sluggish, with some clumsy final revelations that fall flat. But it's still a bit better than SCREAM 5 and 6; the opening scene is pretty good, there are a few bloody deaths, and then there's Sidney's character—a treat for nostalgic people like me who've seen all the SCREAM movies in theaters for the last 30 years!

5-5,5/10

[Master Ray]

You got a point there mentioning Get Carter in comparison, also a classic. Any other good uk crime thrillers which come to mind?
I also love the Harry Palmer movies The Ipcress File and especially The Billion Dollar Brain, both starring Michael Caine and the latter one is directed by Ken Russel and i find it a very special one. Kind of a surreal strange take on an agent story.

I just saw
Demon Seed - by Donald Camell, 1977

and i was thrilled. A very interesting story about AI and regarding the production year, this movie was way ahead of its time. Of course it is a little outdated but for me it worked on every level. Great sci-fi story, good actors, good cinematography and also the sfx are great and were very nice to watch.

If you liked The Matrix and more the story and question it raised about virtual reality, reality and consciousness i recommend:

The Thirteenth Floor - Josef Rusnak, 1999

This one was surprisingly good and i don't know why i hadn't seen this one earlier. I only got the dvd and it looks a bit less than it could look on that format and i would like to have a restored version on bluray. It seems a bit low-budget sometimes, but it has also great images and the story is what counts. A very suspenseful, clever take on virtual reality with a bit of film noir style in it.

@Guillaume
Were you able to watch Black Sunday and what are your thoughts? And more important: could you turn off the subtitles??

I'm going to suggest 'Villain' from 1971, a bit overlooked but Richard Burton is great in it.  Quite bold of the time to have a lead character gangster as a homosexual.  Clearly someone at the time knew about The Krays! 

'RocknRolla' is a Guy Ritchie Movie from 2008, yes it's full of the usual stuff that you'd expect from him but it's really a rather good film, dare I say it, better than Lock Stock or Snatch?

'Croupier' is from 1998 and directed by Mike Hodges, director of 'Get Carter', it's practically forgotten these days but  gave Clive Owen his first big part and is well worth checking out.

And if you want a super obscurity, try and find 'Shiner', a Michael Caine film from 2000, extremely low budget but a pretty gripping watch.

There's a few to be getting on with!   

[cthulhu]

I've looked up Villain and found a release, again a spanish import and put it on my wishlist. Thanks for the great suggestions! While searching for a release there was a movie called Sitting Target mentioned...have you seen this one?

[Master Ray]

I've looked up Villain and found a release, again a spanish import and put it on my wishlist. Thanks for the great suggestions! While searching for a release there was a movie called Sitting Target mentioned...have you seen this one?

Never seen Sitting Targets but I just looked it up and it sounds like one I'd really like to see!  Always up for a bit of Ollie Reed!

[cthulhu]

Have watched a surprisingly good, really good, old Thriller/Horror/Monster B-Movie : Razorback - by Russell Mulcahy, 1984

The cinematography is great, astonishing beautiful shots and angles and scenery from the australian outback, the story is ok, the monster works fine and sometimes it creates a deeply wonderful surreal dreamlike feeling. Highly recommended if you like old-school monster flics.

@Guillaume
You won't believe this, yesterday my friend called me while he was working at the place of Dieter, the ex TD manager, and he said he has a suprise for me. He then came to me and gave me a copy of  "The Keep - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" 

It is the TDI INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL EDITION and i looked it up on discogs:
Soundtrack released in November 1997 as TDI Music catalog # TDI 010CD, in a run of 150 copies sold at concerts.
https://www.discogs.com/release/3980725-Tangerine-Dream-The-Keep-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack

Sadly, i didn't get it with the digipack and 4 page booklet, it has kind of a promo style b/w sleeve with the track index, but hey...i'm totally surprised and thankful!

[Guillaume]

Have watched a surprisingly good, really good, old Thriller/Horror/Monster B-Movie : Razorback - by Russell Mulcahy, 1984

The cinematography is great, astonishing beautiful shots and angles and scenery from the australian outback, the story is ok, the monster works fine and sometimes it creates a deeply wonderful surreal dreamlike feeling. Highly recommended if you like old-school monster flics.

I loved this film when I was younger; it was one of my all-time favorites, so I watched it quite a few times back then on VHS in the '80s and '90s. It's perhaps still Mulcahy's best, even though "Give 'Em Hell, Malone!" and "Highlander" have their merits. Oddly enough, I liked "Razorback" much less the last time I saw it a few years ago, but the film's cinematography and its vision of the australian landscape remain striking.

My favorite scene from "Razorback" is still, I think, this one, after all these years: (a part of the scene is missing though, when the hero gets lost in the desert and dreams.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bru-9yxOYfs

@Guillaume
You won't believe this, yesterday my friend called me while he was working at the place of Dieter, the ex TD manager, and he said he has a suprise for me. He then came to me and gave me a copy of  "The Keep - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" 

It is the TDI INTERNATIONAL SPECIAL EDITION and i looked it up on discogs:
Soundtrack released in November 1997 as TDI Music catalog # TDI 010CD, in a run of 150 copies sold at concerts.
https://www.discogs.com/release/3980725-Tangerine-Dream-The-Keep-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack

Sadly, i didn't get it with the digipack and 4 page booklet, it has kind of a promo style b/w sleeve with the track index, but hey...i'm totally surprised and thankful!

That's a really cool gift from your friend, a real rarity. But according to the comments posted under your Discogs link, this CD doesn't include most of the tracks heard in the film. The official CD/vinyl soundtrack of THE KEEP is therefore still unavailable in 2026 even though someone "released" the album on YouTube in the early 2010's by borrowing the film's audio track from the old 90's laserdisc...:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VPKs1Io7A0

[cthulhu]

Razorback was a real surprise for me, because like you said, if i had watched it in my Splattepunk and Gorehound days it would have been an instant favourite in the same top league as  movies like Phantasm, Evil Dead, M.A.R.K. 13 or Hardware, Basket Case, from a creative visual approach, style over story, but i also recognized a weakness which i would have then seen as a strenght, and that were those two evil dudes and their overacting and their role in that film. They were real scary, more so than the monster, could have been ok, but i felt it was kind of unnecessary and wanted. But anyway, i was in total very pleased with that experience, it felt nostalgic...

The soundtrack wasn't a gift from my friend but from Dieter, i think he had a meeting with a later manager or someone involved with TD and then he got that copy for me, he didn't own one. He has many first pressings vinyls though. I haven't listened to it yet and i hadn't read the comments in discog and this whole situation with the soundtrack is kind of weird. So as i understand it now, the only TD licensed OST of The Keep is that release, but it features many songs which weren't in the movie and also it lacks many songs/themes that were in the movie.

The only other release is also from TDI, on the remastered 2020 album box-set Pilots of Purple Twilight, which only has 13 songs, the older TDI release has 16...
The Orange Records bootleg release is available for 40€, it has 4 more songs than the early release, seemingly taken from other TD releases.

I don't get this story with the bootleg taken from a LD. It could be a version of an isolated score featured on that disc, i love that feature!, but then you don't have the songs of a soundtrack, only parts of it. Or it was an edition with an extra soundtrack.

[Guillaume]

Razorback was a real surprise for me, because like you said, if i had watched it in my Splattepunk and Gorehound days it would have been an instant favourite in the same top league as  movies like Phantasm, Evil Dead, M.A.R.K. 13 or Hardware, Basket Case, from a creative visual approach, style over story, but i also recognized a weakness which i would have then seen as a strenght, and that were those two evil dudes and their overacting and their role in that film. They were real scary, more so than the monster, could have been ok, but i felt it was kind of unnecessary and wanted. But anyway, i was in total very pleased with that experience, it felt nostalgic...

Actually, what I liked less when I rewatched "Razorback" a few years ago was the editing. Mulcahy uses a lot of very short shots; fast paced cuts, it's edited a bit like a music video at times, and for me, that prevents the scenes from "breathing", from having any real scope. I think that since Mulcahy came from music videos, he was much more interested in creating striking (admittedly splendid) shots and having cool editing effects rather than giving the scenes the breathing room they need. But despite my reservations, upon rewatching the film, I still understand, through its visual impact, how it could/can resonate with film buffs at the time... I remember the film was a commercial failure in America, but it made a big impression on some horror film fans right from its screening at the Cannes Film Market in 1984... french magazines like Starfix, Mad Movies, and L'Ecran Fantastique praised "Razorback" in 1984/1985, which made me want to rent the VHS a few years later. Yet another film that I imagine must have been even more memorable in theaters!

I don't get this story with the bootleg taken from a LD. It could be a version of an isolated score featured on that disc, i love that feature!, but then you don't have the songs of a soundtrack, only parts of it. Or it was an edition with an extra soundtrack.

I must be mistaken about the soundtrack from the US LD. I have a friend who owned that LD (released in 1993/1994) and I can't quite remember if it included the isolated track of the Tangerine Dream music. The guy who posted the TD soundtrack on YouTube must have "borrowed" it from a recording of the film when it aired on cable TV here and there. I think most of the rare CDs of "The Keep" sold at the time during Tangerine Dream concerts featured music that was perhaps composed for the film but ultimately rejected by Mann/Paramount for the theatrical cut we know.

Which TD tracks are your favorites in THE KEEP?