Best place to ask obscure movie questions?

[esteban]

Hey folks, perhaps one of you knows a good place to ask questions about obscure movies (I saw a movie as a kid and I can't figure out the title, or anything about it).

Jump the Shark, for example, has a forum "Stump the Shark" where folks can ask questions about television and it seems as if a lot of them are answered (I don't actually know if this is true).

I think a small, hardcore community would be a better place to ask a question, but who knows?

anecdote begins...

Anyway, it was some "horror" film, color, and the climax involved a person frantically scratching the canvas of a painting (to reveal a hidden painting underneath)? I know the canvas was scratched... for sure.

Then, in a moment of slow-motion-tragedy, a father and son are running to embrace one another, but one of them (I forget which)  "forgets" that a double-headed axe is in his hand and their final embrace is fatal (to both of them?).

If I had to guess, I'd say this was an Italian film, dubbed into english.

It aired in the mid-80's on one of the channels (FOX, WWOR, WPIX -- most likely) as an "afternoon matinee"... I was a young kid and I remember the aforementioned scenes vividly (since they were awesome)... but I only saw the last ~15-20 minutes of the film.

Aside: Have I ever told you folks that I wasn't allowed to watch TV when I was a kid and I had to go over my neighbor's house (old gentlemen in his 70's) to sneak a peek at cartoons after school? And my parents only had a b/w television, which was kept in storage in the basement -- only to be used for special occasions? And that my brothers and I would disappear into the basement as soon as my dad left for work to watch cartoons? And that if we didn't turn the TV off in time (before my dad came home from work), I'd grab a bag of frozen peas from the freezer in hopes of "cooling down" the televsion?

Anyway, I saw this crazy horror film at my neighbor's house. He fell asleep, thankfully, and I was able to watch the ending of this movie before the cartoons came on. He fell asleep all the time, but, interestingly, he never fell asleep whilst watching "The People's Court".

-- anecdote ends

[lbblue]

cinemageddon (google)

[gundarN]

Sounds a little bit like The Beyond, although I'm not sure about the axe.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082307/

[SignOfZeta]

Shit. Your life sounds like it would make a much better movie that whatever that piece of crap you saw was.

[Turbo D]

Ghostbusters?

[MrFulci]

Esteban,

Your movie sounds vaguely familiar (painting under painting), however nothing concrete comes to mind.

Go to www.dvdmaniacs.net/forums   Post there.

Films with as much detail as you have provided, generally don't go unanswered for too long on dvdmaniacs. I'd expect an answer in a few days. Just be sure to place, "Help me name this movie" or similar in your thread's subject line.

[MrFulci]

Wait,

is it Deep Red?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073582/

[guyjin]

Aside: Have I ever told you folks that I wasn't allowed to watch TV when I was a kid and I had to go over my neighbor's house (old gentlemen in his 70's) to sneak a peek at cartoons after school?

wow, sucked to be you. good thing for corrupting neighbors.

[esteban]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Shit. Your life sounds like it would make a much better movie that whatever that piece of crap you saw was.

That's the irony! My brothers and I quickly became super-duper fans of television/film/video games

One brother is currently making short films/ documentaries (I used to do this, but I worked with 16mm film).

My other brother, well, he just loves hunting down the stuff I can't find. For example, I'm still trying to find "A Cold Winter's Night's Death"... but he hasn't found it yet. Actually, he probably gave up on it.

Remind me some day to share the fake movie previews my brothers and I made when we were kids. We used to record them on the actual VHS movies we rented from video stores. We usually kept a lot of the original sound / video, but we mixed in our own layer of audio and new footage as well.

Then we got tired of that and started putting our own mini-movies at the end of the movies we rented... that's a story for another day

Thankfully, nobody ever (1) rented the films after us or (2) told the store owner about them.

(We only told our friends about this stuff, obviously).

[MrFulci]

esteban,

Ever discover the title of that movie?

[esteban]

esteban,

Ever discover the title of that movie?

Not yet! But I have a good excuse (true story): I was trying to do some research to see if I could figure out this movie, and I started thinking about other movies that I really want to see, and then I found out that "A Cold Night's Death" (a made-for-tv movie I saw  late-night in the 80's) had been "novelized"!

I nearly crapped my pants! I instantly found a copy in great condition for a few bucks and ordered it.

IT ARRIVED TODAY!

So... yes, I do get sidetracked.

The last time I was trying to find the title of the horror film in the original post, I went on a spree and ordered a bunch of Lucio Fulci films (i.e. House by the Cemetery) and related stuff I hadn't seen since I was a kid.

Aside: I recommend House by the Cemetery -- it was a blast and as much fun to watch as when I was a wee lad. When I was re-watching this, it had a creepiness that was vaguely reminiscent of "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" (another enjoyable movie). I'd say that "The Little Girl..." is far creepier / scary, because its horror is rooted in reality, ultimately. But they both conjure up a desperate sense of isolation, fear and near-helplessness -- I say "near-helplessness" because the girls actually kick-butt and deal with things better than the way most adults are portrayed in suspense / horror films. Awesome.

Crap, what was the question again? I want to see "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" again. That was yet another "late night" movie I saw, back before infomercials dominated the airwaves.

[gundarN]

Giallo Horror FTW.

[Kitsunexus]

Tenebrae...ftw.


I LOVE 80's B-Movie gore.

[MrFulci]

Esteban,

Post here when you discover the title of that film.

Little Girl who Lives Down the Lane, that was released on DVD by MGM in 2005.  Decent movie, however I prefer Bad Ronald!

I may know of a few sources for "A Cold Winters Night". If anything turns up, I'll message you.

[esteban]

Esteban,

Post here when you discover the title of that film.

Little Girl who Lives Down the Lane, that was released on DVD by MGM in 2005.  Decent movie, however I prefer Bad Ronald!

I may know of a few sources for "A Cold Winters Night". If anything turns up, I'll message you.

Oh, I'll definitely post the title here.

Please do look into "A Cold Winters Night", because some folks warned me about really crappy quality / poorly edited versions floating around (this was back in the day of VHS and mail-order, mind you, before the wonders of the internet).

Of course, at this point, I'll take anything.