glennhgreen

This "remake" is the stuff of brown. At two and a half hours one would expect an historical drama.....Being a huge fan of Dario Argento's classic, and it being my second favourite horror film of all time, I thought I would finally give this "remake" a go. At around the one hour point, I just shut it off. If you're going to do a "remake" and just have no respect for the source material, just forget it. This film looks and feels very 2018. From the languid pace to the washed-out colour palette to the dull East German scenery and art direction to the empty characterless actors to the "surreal" art-wank dream sequences, this film need not be watched. Instead, do yourself a favour and watch the original film, almost twice!

This is pretty much the dungheap of the Hammer Dracula franchise. Too much going on that would suggest that this film in any way had to do with that chap from Transylvania. Much like watching an Avengers episode. Hey, it's got Joanna Lumley. And British Intelligence.

Whereas Dracula A. D. 1972 presented the Count in a modern-day London post-hippie faux-gothic setting, complete with cult enthusiasts, Satanic Rites merely takes that concept and tries to overwhelm the viewer. There's too much going on to suggest that you're watching a Hammer vampire flick. Bubonic plague? Yikes! Christopher Lee barely appears throughout most of the film, until about the three-quarter mark. Both Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee seem to be going through the motions of trying to make this crap seem entertaining. Thankfully, this was the stake through the heart of the Hammer vampire franchise.

Released in 1973, Rene Laloux's Fantastic Planet could best be described as a 72 minute trippy science fiction yarn with political overtones set to a sublimely funky beat. It's worlds away from Disney studios, and all the best for it. Set on the home planet of the Draags, the story involves the enslavement of human beings, called Oms. The main protagonist Om, called Terr, is brought up in a brutal, unsympathetic society where he is taught to resist free thought, and is a plaything, devoid of freedom. He eventually escapes his captors and joins an underground Om society where he becomes their leader. Together they fight the Draag order, and achieve independence. The hand-drawn animation, quite primitive by today's tiresome, ubiquitous over-the-top CGI, is at times a little underwhelming, but ultimately makes up for it with overall creativity. Trippy sequences abound. Add to that a great soundtrack by Alain Goraguer, which balances funky beats with spacey sound effects, to create something, along with the visuals, that could only have come from the early seventies.