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Awix (3310 KP) rated The Devil Rides Out (1968) in Movies

Feb 26, 2018 (Updated Feb 26, 2018)  
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (1968)
1968 | Classics, Horror, International
7
8.0 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Classic Hammer horror plays it very straight with Dennis Wheatley's genteel tale of satanic goings on in the home counties. Christopher Lee gets the opportunity to play the good guy, for once, and really makes the most of it; hard to imagine anyone else playing the part better. That said, he's given a run for his money by Charles Gray in what was really a career-defining role for him.

It all seems a bit quaint and somewhat bourgeois by modern standards (they never bother to explain why devil-worship is quite such a bad idea, it's taken for granted that good and evil are quite inflexible), and there are a few amusing holes in the plot, but there are some great set-pieces and the supporting cast are also on form. Very much a film of its time, but still entertains today; not especially scary, though.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Murder by Decree (1979) in Movies

Feb 27, 2018 (Updated Feb 27, 2018)  
Murder by Decree (1979)
Murder by Decree (1979)
1979 | Drama, Horror, Mystery
8
7.3 (3 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Ah, nothing says 'fun' like a movie based on the activities of a brutal real-life misogynistic serial killer. Classy Sherlock Holmes pastiche is as much a vehicle to disseminate one particular Jack the Ripper theory as it is entertainment; fortunately it works very well as the later.

Not really a very good Sherlock Holmes movie - Holmes and Watson are clearly twenty years apart in age, weirdly, and Holmes' fearsome intellect is not much on display; his main method here seems to be to wander about until he stumbles over the solution to a mystery. But a distinguished cast and nice production values make up for the all-over-the-shop script, and the action at the end of the movie is well-staged. Hardly an ideal Holmes, but an entertaining mystery-thriller in a post-Hammer horror sort of style, issues of taste excepted.
  
Saint Maud (2020)
Saint Maud (2020)
2020 | Drama, Horror
9
7.4 (7 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Outstanding British psycho-horror movie; if you want to experience an approximation of what it's like to be in the head of someone in the process of going utterly nuts, this is the movie for you. A devout nurse with a troubled past starts a job caring for an abrasive, dying ex-dancer; she believes God has sent her to this place, but when events suggest otherwise, she finds it impossible to accept...

Initially seems like another of those post-horror movies we keep hearing about: lots of ominous atmosphere and creepy intensity, but not much that's explicitly scary to start with (this changes). Powered along by an extraordinary performance from Morfydd Clark, who plays one of the most unsettling movie loons in recent years, but extremely well scripted and directed too. Genuinely gripping and unsettling, with an ending that hits like a hammer. This is one hell of a movie.