Quatermass 2 (1957)

Excellent science fiction horror thrills. Dr Quatermass (Brian Donlevy) is annoyed because Whitehall has canned his plans for a Moon base. Meanwhile, strange meteorites are landing in the countryside. When Quatermass goes to investigate, he discovers a secret base, just like his plans for a Moon base! His assistant (Brian Forbes) is afflicted by an exploding meteorite and suddenly strange men in masks appear and seize the assistant and send Quatermass packing...

Quatermass knows something weird is going on. He gains access to the base with the help of an MP (Tom Chatto) friend, but his friend dies covered in a bizarre substance and Quatermass narrowly avoids capture and probable zombification. 

With the help of another friend, Police Inspector Lomax (John Longden) and a reporter (Sid James), Quatermass tries to enlight the help of the men of a local village. At first they are hesitant, but when a local girl is hurt by a meteorite, they rise in rebellion and storm the base. Quatermass knows that an unimaginable alien horror lurks in the giant steel tanks...

Although the effects are dated of course the film is chilling, the Quatermass films were always able to portray inhuman horror and science terror perfectly. 

Cowboy Holiday (1934)

An adequate yet unexceptional Western. Buck (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams) is a cowboy travelling across the range on holiday, after a slightly strange encounter involving a friend cowboy in a dress and some spanking, he arrives at the home of another friend of his, the Sheriff (John Elliot). Buck learns that the Sheriff is under pressure to bring in the Juarez Kid (Julian Riviero) or lose his job.

However, the Juarez Kid is another friend of Buck and he doesn't think the Kid is guilty. He decides to help the Sheriff and find out who is really doing all the stealing.

So pretty familiar stuff, including a budding romance with a rancher's daughter (Janet Chandler) of course. Unfortunately the film is rather flat and lifeless with some questionable execution. A more charismatic lead would have helped a lot to elevate the material, as it is the film is reasonably competent but no more.

Blind Date (1984)

A curious mess of a film. A deranged serial killer is incapacitating young women and practicing surgery on them. Meanwhile cocky advertising executive Jonathan (Joseph Bottoms), when he isn't sleeping with Kirstie Alley, is haunted by a girl called Rachel (Lana Clarkson) whom he once knew but lost contact with after a terrible incident in their past. Jonathan thinks he has found the girl in Athens but then he hits his head on a tree and is blinded.

(Mad) scientist (Keir Dullea) gives him the chance to "see" again using radar sensors hidden in a Walkman which feed into his brain. Although all he can "see" looks like an early 1970s video game, he is able to function again. He crosses paths with the serial killer, who has even disposed of Marina Sirtis, and begins a hunt for him. Can he catch him before the maniac kills Rachel?

Really this is two films, the amateur surgeon serial killer, and the story of how Jonathan loses and regains his sight. Both films are interesting, even pretty good. Unfortunately when they are put together it all becomes a bit of a mess. It is slash gore horror meets Tron, worth seeing mostly for curiosity value.

The Princess and the Pirate (1944)

A very funny Bob Hope romp. The brutal pirate Hook (Victor MacLaglen) aims to kidnap the Princess (Virginia Mayo) who is on the run from the King (Robert Warwick). She is aboard a ship along with Bob Hope and his rather second-rate comedy act as Sylvester. The Princess and Sylvester end up the prisoners of Hook but are freed by the eccentric Featherhead (Walter Brennan) who gives them a map to Hook's treasure.

The Princess and Sylvester are soon the prisoners of La Roche (Walter Slezek) who wants to claim the reward from the King but is also in league with Hook. A chaotic and hilarious sequence at La Roche's mansion ends up with Sylvester impersonating Hook...

A very silly film full of obvious (but genuinely funny) gags and slapstick. Bing Crosby makes an appearance right at the very end.

Marabunta (1998)

Jim (Eric Lutes) arrives in Alaska for a spot of fishing, but his holiday gets off to a bad start when he finds a dead moose which has been eaten down to the bone in hours. Not long afterwards a human similarly consumed. And whats more... no fish!

Luckily Jim is an entomologist and soon discovers that meat eating ants from South America are to blame (obviously). With the help of the Sheriff (Mitch Pileggi) and teacher/future love interest Laura (Julia Campbell), the town is evacuated but no plan goes that smoothly...

Trapped in the town, our heroes are surrounded by ants as the town is overrun by the little things. As flamethrowers, guns and chemicals are not enough to stop the ants wiping out Alaska, Jim has a plan to blow up a dam to drown the ants. Only problem is to get the explosives required means going back into the midst of the ants...

Insect based monster films generally are cheesy and terrible, but Marabunta must rank as one of the worst. Low budget, ropey special effects, average acting and (as this was a TV movie) the action is nicely packaged for the regular advert breaks. It is terrible and somehow brilliant at the same time.