[watching] What have you viewed recently? (II)

Guvnor said:
I am at the Edinburgh Fringe and I shall post show review as I see them.

Casting the Runes
Based on MR James



I enjoyed this a lot, creepy mix of gif acting and puppetry.
@BoxTaleSoup

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I remember Box Tale Soup being interviewed on A Podcast to the Curious. Very interesting to hear how they set about mounting their productions. Think Casting the Runes might be a revival as I seem to recall them talking about it on the podcast.
 
ltd said:
I remember Box Tale Soup being interviewed on A Podcast to the Curious. Very interesting to hear how they set about mounting their productions. Think Casting the Runes might be a revival as I seem to recall them talking about it on the podcast.
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Very evocative but very efficient set design. Again, evocative and efficient puppet builds. Switched between puppetry and acting seamlessly. The puppets are human scale, held before one of the two actors.
 
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We also saw

A Piece of Work in Progress
Sue Perkins
An interesting sandbox of comedy and humour. Quite dark based on her own experiences. I liked it a lot, Ann was fazed by the resemblance to a friend. I laughed a lot.

The Importance of being Earnest
A play where a production of the Oscar Wilde play is kiboshed by the lead actor not turning up. So the director starts to cast the audience. A very amusing mix of the "wot went wrong" format with unsuspecting muggles being made to improv. We enjoyed it a lot.

Ahir Shah
British Asian comedian with a very funny and biting cultural political show that ends praising how well we do multi culturalism in the UK.. at least compared to most everywhere else.

Scott Bennett
Good funny stand up. Gosh it's good to laugh again.
 
Watched All True and All Gold, the two Spandau Ballet mocumentaries on IPlayer. Quite hit and miss and they're both probably too long, but they do feature some genuinely inspired moments (e.g. the sugar puffs scene). The Kemp brothers are surprisingly good comic actors, although Michael Kitchen reprising his foul mouthed manager from Life of Rock steals the show. Honourable mention for Francis Rossi of Status Quo playing himself as a curmudgeonly Steptoe like character.
 
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Just watched Daredevil Season 1 on D+, only 9 years after it's launch. It's a remarkably good piece of superhero TV storytelling: nuanced, dark and violent; with wonderful cinematography, lighting and soundscape. I have always enjoyed the Daredevil and similar urban lower powered comic book heroes. I am very happy and will start Jessica Jones next week.
 
Beetlejuice
Ok, ok, I have no idea why I have never watched this. I blame Mark K..
It's a good fun Tim Burton film, cute whimsical and goth.
Now I can look forward to the sequel like a normal person.
 
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
2024AD
Oh my freaking heck.
Starts innocent enough.
Then.. all gothic batshit crazy breaks out.

9/10

All I can say is
"Someone left the cake out in the rain..."
 
Guvnor said:
Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice
2024AD
Oh my freaking heck.
Starts innocent enough.
Then.. all gothic batshit crazy breaks out.
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We watched it too, yesterday afternoon. What glorious fun! We then watched the original when we got home.

Edit: I did watch the original film back in the early 1990s.
 
I am trying Scavengers Reign on Netflix, it has a very Gallic-Brazillian vibe I recognise from Aldebaran and other such graphic novels.
 
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Night of the Demon was based on Casting the Runes. That film scared me and still does send shivers!
Just watched Dune 2. Two words - Magnificent
 
Scavengers Reign on Netflix is coming together very nicely, I am on episode 11 of 12.
 
Guvnor said:
I saw an excellent puppet/acting play at the Fringe and so now I want to see this!
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Slightly OT I know but I'm reading Furnace by Muriel Gray at the moment which reworks the story as a piece of Stephen King style blue collar US horror. Not finished yet, but it seems to work. Gray's an avowed admirer of MR James, she chose him as her subject on BBC4's Great Lives programme.

Has anyone seen the "modern" adaptation of Casting the Runes from 1979 starring Jan Francis and directed by Christmas ghost stories veteran Lawrence Gordon Clark? Very low budget but it's got a great wintry bleak look to it (filmed in a suitably forbidding looking Leeds). I rather like it, although quite possibly I'm in a minority.
 
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Tonight's Horror, courtesy of Caroline Munro's Cellar Club on TPTV:
Theatre of Blood excellent horror comedy with Vincent Price and Diana Rigg and everyone else from 1970 UK cinema.. at first.. 8/10
Pit and the Pendulum a Roger Corman classic based on Poe with Vincent Price. Apart from the lead's jarring American accent.. quite deliciously creepy. 8/10
 
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