These 11 people watched Split – you won’t believe what happened next!

24/04/201425/04/2014alxkdd

Now that we’ve got you here with our terrible click-baiting hyperbole headline we can exclusively reveal that what happened next was that at some point they all went onto IMDb and wrote reviews…

Now in an effort to get you excited and intrigued about our Sci-Fi FREAKOUT night, where we’re screening Split, we thought we’d take a look at highlights from these 11 reviews and let you know what we think of their opinions. Starting with the good ones and then working our way to the people who hated it.

“There are moments of true genius in the framing and cinematography.”

100% agree here and that’s exactly why we’re showing it, it’s a marvel of ingenuity with some super stylish and unexpected visual flourishes.

“…an excellent example of what a small crew with brains and talent can do on a shoestring budget.”

Split really is a marvel of what you can get away with if you’ve got talent and ingenuity on your side, yes it’s a hard watch at times, but it’s such a visual head trip that we really want to share it with you.

“I found that watching the film under the influence of LSD helped to deal with Audio/Video tracers from fantastic editing job.”

Yes it really is that sort of film; it seems designed to throw you off kilter and seems to work against any established rules of regular filmmaking. And no we won’t be providing LSD on the night.

“Yes, it’s very low budget, but for its time the computer effects and sound effects are very unique and the paintings are utterly fascinating.”

The computer sections now have a fantastically basic look which fully fall into the retro mould and even bring to mind the original Tron in places. Plus the computer sequences where created by the director’s brother, so that must have really helped keep the budget down.

“Split is filled with ideas – almost too many for its 85 minute running time.”

We’re getting to the core of things here as we head into the bad reviews, yes Split practically explodes with ideas, there are bits busting out all over the place, some of which you won’t catch, but that’s actually part of the reason we’re showing it.

“It’s basically The Matrix idea done on a student’s budget.”

When he wrote this what he’s actually talking about is the split world element of the Matrix, not the kung-fu fighting machine gun blasting sections, so don’t come along expecting any of that to happen.

“Split was one of the more original films I have ever seen, though I am not entirely sure if that is good.”

We come back to the reason we’re screening this, it’s total originality, but we will admit that it’s a tough watch in places as it’s exploding with hyperkinetic energy that seems to go off in all sorts of directions.

“I only recommend seeing this film if you appreciate non-mainstream movies.”

This reviewer really didn’t like it, but what a great line, if you’re reading this then we know you LOVE non-mainstream movies – so that’s a great endorsement for the film.

“It’s what happens when people get high, think they are creating and instead they are making fools of themselves.”

Drug references seem to be a given constant in reviews of Split, I can see that to some people they might find this movie foolish, but come on, it’s so wild, how can you not enjoy just looking at it? It’s certainly never boring, which is the worst crime any film can commit.

“The movie is idiotic and is obviously geared towards persons who are into using drugs.”

More drug references, but anyone saying the above about any film would make me run to watch it straight away, the reviewer detested the film but he’s playing right into our hands!

“This movie is very much like death, and you’ll agree if you survive it.”

Survive is the right word to some extent, it’s a wild experience for 85-minutes, but any movie that can actually kill you has to be seen, surely?

Join us to find out for yourself when we screen Split at our Sci-Fi FREAKOUT on Monday 28 April at Phoenix Artists Club.

Dawn Of The Dead – The Board Game (1978)

23/04/2014alxkdd

Yes that’s right, today we’re taking a look at the very rare 1978 board game based on George A. Romero’s all time classic zombie film Dawn Of The Dead. How we found out that this game existed is a prime example of how we find a lot of things we use for The Duke, simply by constantly digging and questioning things.

I’d found an old 1980s cult film fanzine and was reading through it, one of the features was the zine editor’s want list of films and various other things. Now want lists are great ways to find out about other obscure items, if something is interesting enough to make it onto someone’s list, then it’s always worth checking out what it actually is, at least you’ll know about it even if you can’t find it yourself.

So amongst this want list were two things that at first I thought had to be jokes, but in fact turned out to be real: board games for Escape From New York and Dawn Of The Dead. Quite amazing to see those two mentioned in writing like that and amazing that I’d not heard about either of them existing previously. But no one knows everything, hence why it’s always important to keep reading and trying to find out as much as possible.

So a quick dig around online revealed that both of these actually existed, which if course then lead to trying to find them for sale. So skipping forwards we can let you know that both of those games now sit within the Duke archives and today we’ll show you the quite amazing Dawn Of The Dead game. Actually it’s amazing in two different ways, firstly the box just looks super cool and it’s a fantastic thing to have no your shelf. The second way that it’s amazing is that it’s amazingly complicated to play, so complicated in fact that only we gave up trying to figure it out on the one time we sat down and tried to play it.

The game actually owes more to strategy games really then board game and it’s really tricky to get your head around the rules, we should probably stick with it, then we’d figure it out, but to be honest it seemed to opposite of fun the first time we tried it out.

The game isn’t that hard to get hold of, as it’s so collectable it does pop up on ebay quite often, though the price seems to have gone up recently, we picked ours up for what seems like a great deal now compared to some of the prices people want for it. So take a look at the pictures and enjoy the fantastically vintage look of the whole thing.

All the way from Germany, circa 1984…

23/04/2014alxkdd

Get VHS trailer tape delivery this morning, all the way from Germany, here’s an Atlas Video/Thorn EMI tape from way back in 1984, amazing condition as well. The only drawback is that all the trailers are in German, the seller had loads more available, but I went for this one as it has a lot of original local German film trailers on it. Keep your fingers crossed for some great finds.

Sci-Fi FREAKOUT – Split

22/04/201422/04/2014alxkdd

We’re less than one week away now from our next Duke night – join us at Phoenix Artists Club on Monday 28 April from 7PM, for a night of the strangest Sci-Fi films you’ve ever seen. Here’s the trailer for our main feature on the night, the truly one-of-a-kind Split (1989).