Cherry 2000 (1987)

A well-off Sam Treadwell (David Andrews) hires a soft-voiced but ballsy tracker (Melanie Griffith) to escort him into an outlying restricted zone. It's a dangerous excursion into a post-apocalyptic lawless wasteland, but Sam does it for love - the love of his Cherry 2000, an android companion (sex doll).
One of the film's strengths is its shot-on-location nature, utilising the natural lightning of the environment, because when shooting sci-fi on a budget you need all the help you can get to make it believable. The story's soft-core undertones are played knowingly, which is another way of saying it's self-aware cheese, but it at least tries to be better than the sum of its parts.

2 serene outlooks out of 5

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

Picking up where The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) ended, Revenge follows the Baron as he sets up his shop of secret horrors elsewhere.
There’s a surprising amount of gallows humour in the first half that some folks may find unwelcome. Personally, I didn't mind it at all.
The addition of an aide, a tragic character affected by the cruelty of a society that thinks itself civilised, lifts the remainder of the film to great heights, and that, I'm sure we can all agree, was certainly a good idea.

Don't fall into thinking the 'revenge' of the title means things have been simplified or the focus shifted. Think of it as a strong redress for a judgement, working toward proving to oneself and others that you were right all along.

4 overhauls out of 5

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Scars does things a little differently. It has a priest that isn't a dick and it places at the beginning of the film what’s traditionally nearer the ending. The bulk of the rest is taken up by the more familiar hunt for a missing person; yes, the one that went to the castle despite being told not to.
One of the highlights is the semi-tragic character in the vampire’s employ played by a hairy Patrick Troughton. I suspect the Count’s recurrent need to have a weathered manservant at his beck and call and a busty lady in his parlour points to some deep-rooted psychological problems.
The villagers are equally troubled. Burn the STONE castle! Good idea, lads, that always worked in the past.

2½ shocking bats out of 5

Village of the Damned (1960)

Quality sci-fi based on John Wyndham’s novel, The Midwich Cuckoos (1957).
The B+W cinematography is a thing of beauty. It throws the white-haired children into stark relief, making them even more menacing than they would be otherwise. The pastoral English countryside has a similar effect in a more delicate way: that something so horrifying could happen in a place so peaceful makes us think nowhere is really safe. Taking that thought deeper still, the means by which the visitations happen shows how vulnerable the sanctity of the species’ entire evolution really is. It’s scary food for thought to be digested in silence.

4 things afoot out of 5

Cleopatra (1963)

It’s everything they say it is: expensive, opulent, historically inaccurate, self-indulgent and melodramatic eye-candy. Cut down from an eight hour work print it’s a wonder it makes any sense at all, but it does and it’s beautiful. They really don’t make ‘em like this any more (probably because it’s the most expensive movie ever made and almost bankrupt 20th Century Fox). The recent blu-ray delivers a 251 minute cut in stunning 1080p, which may be the longest we’ll ever see commercially unless some new footage turns up.

5 gilded histories out of 5