It's been a rotten film year thus far, but Zach Cregger's Weapons is a noteworthy highlight that goes against the grain, and a reason to still remain positive. A gem of a film balancing dark humour and dread filled horror with aplomb.
Film:
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Sidney Lanfield, 1939)
Missile to the Moon (Richard E. Cunha, 1958)*
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Terence Fisher, 1959)
Teenage Gang Debs (Sande N. Johnsen, 1966)*
A.A.A. Masseuse, Good Looking, Offers Her Services (Demofilo Fidani, 1972)*
Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods (Sauro Scavolini, 1972)
Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky, 2025)*
Dracula: A Love Tale (Luc Besson, 2025)*
Weapons (Zach Cregger, 2025)*
Television:
Earth - Season 1 (Various, 2023)*
Mastermind - Episodes 7-11 (Bill Wright, 2025 / 2026)*
*First time viewings.
Dada Debaser Notes:
- Torn over which is the best Sherlock Holmes film adaptation I watched this month. 20th Century Fox's 1939 film boasts Basil Rathbone, the definitive actor to have played the great detective (even after the time jump), but I can't help being mesmerised by Hammer's gothic technicolour splendour in the 1959 film.
- A.A.A. Masseuse, Good-Looking, Offers Her Services is an awful giallo that focuses more on its lead actress getting in and out of her kit for most of the film than anything else. Predictably dull and only notable for its relative obscurity (until recently).
- Sauro Scavolini's Love and Death in the Garden of the Gods is a twisted psychosexual drama before veering into giallo territory near the end. Definitely an acquired taste, but I enjoyed revisiting this again.
- Manhattan bad girl Terry (Diane Conti) moves into a Brooklyn neighbourhood and quickly moves up the ranks of a local gang — thanks to being complete dynamite in the sack — in the largely plotless Teenage Gang Debs. It's a juvenile delinquency movie where the teens look around thirty, dance like your parents at a wedding and wear knitted cardigans at a knife fight. It's been done better elsewhere, but I did enjoy parts of it, though.
- Keep forgetting to make notes for Alex Proyas's Dark City, as I really want to review it, but too much time passes by where I'm no longer in the right zone to cover it. Incredible film, regardless.
- Style wise, Luc Besson's utterly awful Dracula: A Love Tale borrows heavily from Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation, initially. After that, he's mining the perfect scent scenes from Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) and Jamelia's Money music video. Even with all the makeup, Caleb Landry Jones still looks like Axl Rose than the titular count, and the CGI stone gargoyles can't be taken seriously.
- Apart from featuring every bloke's sci-fi fantasy — a planet populated with extraterrestrial babes (there's always going to be a cat fight, eventually!) — the best thing about Missile to the Moon are the laugh out loud rock monsters:
Missile to the Moon | Rock Monsters Scene
Richard E. Cunha | 1958
Other Stuff I Enjoyed This Month:
The third part in Crab Apple's incredible run down of BBC 2's Horror Double Bills; The Martorialist's favourite Female Rap Songs of the 2020s; The Flashback Fanatic's review of Heavy Metal (1981), Chris Wood's review of Assault (1971) and Dave Parker's epic Top 25 Horror Movies of 1982 video essay.
6 comments:
I noticed The Hounds Of The Baskervilles was on Talking Pictures a few nights ago, clicked on it and was gutted to find it was the 2002 version.
It was on Talking Pictures TV last night, too.
Given how I'd watched the two other adaptations this month, I watched about a minute or two of it and lost interest. Wasn't for me.
Semi-related, but a really great and underappreciated Sherlock Holmes film is Bob Clark's (of Black Christmas and Porky's fame) Murder by Decree (1979). Has a lot in common with the Hughs brothers' From Hell (2001).
Both the 1939 and the 1959 versions of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES are must see for the Sherlock Holmes fan. Hammer's '59 version is reworked enough to make it practically spoiler-free after seeing the earlier Rathbone-starring classic.
You are absolutely right! Bob Clark's MURDER BY DECREE is another great horror-tinged Sherlock Holmes flick.
I admire both of those aforementioned adaptations of The Hound of the Baskervilles. You're right about Hammer's rework, it kept the film fresh and was a pleasant twist in the end. Also love the prologue with Sir Hugo. Quintessential Hammer in style and sets the rest of the film up perfectly.
Glad I'm not the only one who appreciates Murder by Decree. Yet another film Siskel and Ebert got wrong.
To me, any month that features Teenage Gang Debs and Missile to the Moon as first time watches is a rousing cinematic success!!
Terry was Brooklyn's very own Helen of Troy. Nino knew she was a Deb worth fighting for.
You might be interested to know AGFA just released The Sadist (1963) on Blu-ray as part of a true crime triple bill.
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