PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 14, 2019 15:36:55 GMT -5
Signs October 13 Signs is a very-well constructed thriller. I'm not really sure why it doesn't get more acclaim; it should be right up there with The Sixth Sense. I know there are people who complain about "why would they come to a planet full of water?" But I don't really get that complaint. For one thing, there are lots of plausible explanations, but really that's missing the whole point. Its like people whingeing about scientists taking of helmets in Prometheus, or not learning Snope's background in Last Jedi. Having those nitpicks is fine, but I don't understand when they colour your whole opinion of the movie. Signs really has nothing to do with the practicality of a n alien invasion anyways. It has to do with setting tone and atmosphere, with looking at the struggles of the characters. Its chilling when it needs to be chilling, heartfelt when it needs to be heartfelt, and engaging the whole way through. And its all punctuated with a great score. 9/10
I don't like Signs as much as you do, but I agree with your arguments here.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 14, 2019 15:49:22 GMT -5
Day Twelve: Flesh, and the Power it HoldsEyes Without a FaceI decided to usher in the Criterion Channel by showing my partner Eyes Without a Face for the first time. She really liked it too! My own opinions on the film haven't really shifted at all since my first viewing. Eyes Without a Face is beautifully shot and scored, with some amazing scenes which have rightfully become iconic in horror cinema. Georges Franju is able to create a palpable sense of horror, yet the film's poetic visuals and sound are also mesmerizing. All that said, my reservations still largely stand. In particular, the actions of the police in the third act just feel ridiculously contrived. There are so many scenes of the detectives putting together their plan that are completely tedious and I wish Georges Franju had come up with a more engaging way to reach his ending, which is admittedly pretty great. I'm still hesitant to call Eyes Without a Face a masterpiece, but it is a great piece of horror cinema which has had a clear influence yet remains unique and singular. A-The Skin I Live InI sort of get why The Skin I Live In was well-received but sort of left behind since release. The film is a bit too much of a straight forward genre piece to be praised for its thematic insights or depth, yet also a bit too vile and unpleasant to be enjoyed simply as a fun thriller. Indeed, The Skin I Live In is not a film I would recommend lightly. It deals heavily in sexual violence and veers into some very uncomfortable territory. All the same, I enjoyed this film a lot. Pedro Almodovar fills the film with fluid camera movements and somehow manages a certain luscious beauty with vivid colours to a cold and clinical tone. A big part of this is Antonio Banderas, who is surprisingly awesome as a mad scientist of sorts. At it's core, this is a twisted (and twisty) thriller full of tension and dread. The film also drops a pretty insane twist leading into act three, which will certainly be read very differently by different people, but it certainly caught me off guard and opened up interesting story possibilities. I'm not sure if The Skin I Live In will be remembered as one of Almodovar's key works, but it's certainly a well-crafted piece of storytelling. A-
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 14, 2019 15:54:52 GMT -5
I feel the same as you do about this movie. Gets a bit of an unfair rap these days.
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Post by Dracula on Oct 14, 2019 17:11:36 GMT -5
I'm also largely pro-Signs. Honestly, the people who hate it often sound to me like they saw a different movie.
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Post by Neverending on Oct 14, 2019 17:14:53 GMT -5
Signs October 13 Signs is a very-well constructed thriller. I'm not really sure why it doesn't get more acclaim; it should be right up there with The Sixth Sense. I know there are people who complain about "why would they come to a planet full of water?" But I don't really get that complaint. For one thing, there are lots of plausible explanations, but really that's missing the whole point. Its like people whingeing about scientists taking of helmets in Prometheus, or not learning Snope's background in Last Jedi. Having those nitpicks is fine, but I don't understand when they colour your whole opinion of the movie. Signs really has nothing to do with the practicality of a n alien invasion anyways. It has to do with setting tone and atmosphere, with looking at the struggles of the characters. Its chilling when it needs to be chilling, heartfelt when it needs to be heartfelt, and engaging the whole way through. And its all punctuated with a great score. 9/10
I don't like Signs as much as you do, but I agree with your arguments here. I feel the same as you do about this movie. Gets a bit of an unfair rap these days. Billions of people in the planet but it took Mel Gibson’s dead wife to figure out that water kills the aliens. And y’all have the cojones to talk shit about Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds.
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Post by 1godzillafan on Oct 14, 2019 17:20:20 GMT -5
I have a Super Soaker. I hold weapons of mass destruction.
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Post by Neverending on Oct 14, 2019 17:23:02 GMT -5
I have a Super Soaker. I hold weapons of mass destruction. Trump when the alien invasion comes.
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PhantomKnight
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 14, 2019 17:27:54 GMT -5
I don't like Signs as much as you do, but I agree with your arguments here. I feel the same as you do about this movie. Gets a bit of an unfair rap these days. Billions of people in the planet but it took Mel Gibson’s dead wife to figure out that water kills the aliens. And y’all have the cojones to talk shit about Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds. The Tom Cruise War of the Worlds is really good, too.
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Post by Nilade on Oct 14, 2019 18:24:03 GMT -5
Billions of people in the planet but it took Mel Gibson’s dead wife to figure out that water kills the aliens. And y’all have the cojones to talk shit about Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds. The Tom Cruise War of the Worlds is really good, too. I second that
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Post by 1godzillafan on Oct 14, 2019 18:25:13 GMT -5
Greatest alien invasion movie of all time is Prince of Space. Fuck the rest.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 14, 2019 18:53:19 GMT -5
I dig War of the Worlds.
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Post by thebtskink on Oct 14, 2019 19:04:23 GMT -5
War of the Worlds is a good flick
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Post by 1godzillafan on Oct 14, 2019 20:37:23 GMT -5
Day 14 - The Corpse Vanishes
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Post by Dracula on Oct 14, 2019 22:35:31 GMT -5
Film Fourteen: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) I’m on record as saying I liked the 1956 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers more than the seemingly more popular 70s remake, but it had been ages since I’d actually seen that original film and I had my worries that the film wouldn’t hold up. Having finally bought Olive Films’ Signature Blu-Ray and having had a bit of a science fiction streak through my October horror watching this year the time seemed right to finally give it another watch. I remember the film being at its strongest at its ending and that sort of bore out this time, the movie really cooks in its third act and the part where the hero is in the highway shouting “you’re next!” is genuinely chilling. The build up to that can be a little slow, but the overall movie is short and it doesn’t take too long to get to the goods. The film is of course elevated by the possibility that it’s a political allegory for what’s going on in the country. Some interpret the invasion as an allegory for the dirty communists trying to take over the country by spreading their ideology while others see it as an allegory for the McCarthyites clamping down on dissenting views and enforcing conformity. The later certainly fits better with my world view, but I find it a lot more plausible that it was the former message that was most likely to be advanced by a Red Scare era science fiction film. Director Don Siegel, for his part, claims that all of that is ridiculous and that he was mainly trying to make a movie about his own struggles with insomnia and that the fear of not being able to sleep was paramount… but he was probably lying about that. Whichever way you look at it, the allegory gives the movie extra weight and seems to have something more alarming underneath it than whatever it was the 70s version was supposed to be about. ***1/2 out of Five
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Post by Neverending on Oct 14, 2019 23:06:01 GMT -5
the seemingly more popular 70s remake Says who?
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 14, 2019 23:20:29 GMT -5
the seemingly more popular 70s remake Says who? More to come on the '78 remake tomorrow.
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Post by Neverending on Oct 14, 2019 23:23:44 GMT -5
More to come on the '78 remake tomorrow.
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 14, 2019 23:39:43 GMT -5
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Post by Neverending on Oct 15, 2019 3:20:56 GMT -5
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)As Dracula pointed out, the original Body Snatchers is a product of the Red Scare of the 1950's. But the novel it's based on is an environment story. Aliens arrive on Earth and kill all the humans, and not through violence, but by simply replacing them as the dominant species. It's an allegory for man's relationship to nature. This 1978 version blurs the line between the source material and its first adaptation by making the central character a health inspector facing an alien disease but also keeping the essence of "the pod people." It's a very well-made big budget Hollywood science-fiction movie that fits in with the popular disaster films of the 1970's. But that's also what kinda hurts it. The original is moody and you can feel the horror. With this one the scope is too big to capture that. It's like comparing Terminator to Terminator 2. One relies on tone and the other on spectacle. REVIEWS FROM THE VAULTBODY SNATCHERS (1993) Every 10 or 20 years we get a new version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. For those unfamiliar, it's about aliens killing humans and replacing them with exact duplicates. It's like The Stepford Wives but with aliens. And the version of the 1990's tried to shake things up by having the story take place almost exclusively in an army base. That's a clever plot because if aliens are gonna invade Earth, it makes sense for it eliminate its defenses first. But here's the problem. That's ALL that happens in the movie. It's literally just 2 hours of aliens taking over the army. There's no hero who's trying to stop it. There's no second-half where the army, now filled with alien duplicates, attacks the planet. Basically, nothing interesting or of importance happens in the movie. So, the only thing keeping the audience entertained is the hilariously bad acting, the cheesiness and the occasional nudity.
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Post by PhantomKnight on Oct 15, 2019 9:51:34 GMT -5
You son of a...
DAY FIFTEEN: INVASION DOUBLE FEATURE!
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)
There can often be a rather scary and/or creepy quality at the heart of science fiction, and no story perhaps exemplifies that as best as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, because it's such an eerie concept. And that inherent eeriness is something that director Phillip Kaufman utilizes rather well. This is another movie that does a nice job of creating an ominous tone almost immediately and just turning up the dial on it with each subsequent scene. He effectively creates a sense of mounting paranoia in both his characters and the film's environment by subtly establishing a feeling of wrongness to everything at first, and then hitting you with the bigger reveals and moments at just the right times. Setting this in a city proves to be a good decision, too, because it amplifies the tone and atmosphere that Kaufman is going for, to see this "disease" of sorts spread throughout the city. I know that many have already drawn parallels between this and the climate of the post-Watergate era, but also, there's some interesting comparisons to be made between the way the body snatchers spread through society and how a virus would do the same. The cast, ranging from Donald Sutherland to Jeff Goldblum and even Leonard Nimoy all turn in solid work. In terms of the effects and set pieces, they deliver for the most part. A lot of the second half takes place at night, which allows Kaufman to make use of lighting and shadows in cool ways. Plus, in terms of gore and nudity, there were times where I was reminded that this was a 1970's-era PG rating. Although, there was a truly WTF moment with a human head on a dog's body that just came off more as silly than scary. Also, now I finally know which movie that infamous still of Donald Sutherland comes from.
Overall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers walks the line between sci-fi and horror rather delicately and offers up an effective mixture of both.
***/****
THE INVASION (2007)
So, 1978's Invasion of the Body Snatchers was itself a remake of a 1956 film and naturally, that remake trend continues with this 2007 film. But with one big caveat: this movie's awful. Not surprising, though, when you consider how the production of this film all went down. And those production issues sure do show in the finished product. First off, this just might be one of the most horribly edited movies I've ever seen. Often, the movie just jumps to new scenes as if it's already in a rush to get over with and thus fails to establish any semblance of rhythm or pacing. To the film's credit, it does TRY to establish tension and suspense, but the hacked-up editing job interferes with that every step of the way. One particularly bad thing this movie does in that department is intercut scenes of characters carrying out plans with scenes while they're still formulating said plans, and it just comes off as sloppy. Because this movie has no rhyme or reason to it, there's not one iota of suspense or mystery that the '78 film had. It's just an exercise in inevitability, where you're just waiting around for what you know is going to happen, making it an empty shell of a movie -- much like the aliens themselves. Not even actors like Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig and Jeffrey Wright (yes, Bond and Leiter are now fighting aliens - which, give me that movie over this) can do anything to save this. The intentions behind The Invasion may have been good, but the end result is such a botched mess that I have to wonder if we'll ever get another remake of this story.
*/****
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Post by Neverending on Oct 15, 2019 10:21:46 GMT -5
22. House on Haunted HillI wanted to watch a short horror film and this Vincent Price movie seemed a good choice. In the film, Price plays a millionaire who brings together a collection of people to stay one night in a supposedly haunted house. If they make it through the night, they each get ten grand. At 75 minutes, House on Haunted Hill wastes no time jumping into things. We're quickly given a glimpse of the house's history, meet all of our characters, they are brought to the house, and right away supernatural events begin to occur. There are a lot of horror set-pieces and while its rarely scary due to the age and low budget, most of these tricks are very fun. A scheme is eventually unravelled which may have been decently clever, but it also sort of took away from the spooky atmosphere. Also, while the low-budget can be charming, it gets a little to ridiculous at the end. The effects are very silly and the explanation is even sillier. It may not be a good film, but it is good fun if you're in the right mood. C+ Day Ten:Film Year: 1958 Director: William Castle Starring: Vincent Price. Nobody cares about anybody else. Riff Year: 2010 (also riffed in 2005 and 2009) Riffers: Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett (and Paul F. Tompkins, kinda sorta) Featured Shorts: Magical Disappearing Money, Paper and I (also riffed by Paul F. Tompkins) Is there any possible downside to accepting an invitation from Vincent Price to spend an evening in a creepy mansion that was built on something called “Haunted Hill?” If so, Mike, Kevin and Bill couldn’t find it! In fact they were so eager to join Mr. Price and his terrifying moustache that they riffed the film live, on-stage, and now you can reap the rewards from the safety of home with this live show DVD!
Yes, horror classic House on Haunted Hill provides a mesmerizing walk down “people actually used to find this SCARY?!?” lane. Join the RiffTrax guys as they bring their special brand of rapid-fire comedic commentary to every skeleton-hanging-from-visible-wires, clumsy sexual overtone, and a stunningly inept test pilot whose “heroics” typically lead him to bloody his own nose after locking himself in a broom closet!
The guys are joined by guest riffer Paul F. Tompkins, comedy person extraordinaire and quite a snappy dresser to boot! They also riff two vintage, never-before-seen shorts live on-stage: Paper and I, in which a small boy is haunted by a talking paper bag, and Magical Disappearing Money, about a supermarket witch whose main concern is that you don’t spend too much on rice. No, seriously, that’s what they’re really about!
Join Mike, Kevin, Bill, and Paul for an unforgettable All Hallow’s Eve of mind-melting comedy!One of Rifftrax’s earliest live shows, this 2010 Halloween special has a bit more flair than their more recent attempts, namely more than one short and a guest riffer. They were also partnered with Legend Films at this time, which loved to use Mike, Kevin, and Bill to show off their colonization process. Unlike Night of the Living Dead, this version of House on Haunted Hill was Legend’s colorized version, so no this isn’t the shittiest Technicolor you’ve ever seen. House on Haunted Hill doesn’t lose a lot in the transition, because it really isn’t that scary even in moodier black and white, but purists be warned. I’m annoyed by it, but it’s not a deal breaker. But starting at the beginning, it’s Halloween and Mike, Kevin, and Bill waste no time introducing their Halloween costumes. After the intro they jump right into the first short called Magical Disappearing Money, which in my opinion is the better of the two shorts featured. In it a witch haunts a grocery store, makes everyone’s food disappear, and gives them a lesson on cost effective shopping. The short is cute in a Bewitched sort of way, but Mike, Kevin, and Bill put a satanic twist on it, giving the witch a hilariously demonic personality and making her shenanigans terrifying. After the short they introduce Paul F. Tompkins, who has an amusing comical bit about a cliched horror movie scene that he dislikes. Afterward they roll Paper and I, a short about a sentient paper bag who gives a child a lesson in where paper comes from that he neither asked for nor wanted. Tompkins does well with the boys, but their riffs run a bit to similar to the previous, trying to play up the paper bag as an entity from hell. It’s funny, but it’s a bit tiresome, because we’ve seen shorts like this before both on Rifftrax and MST, and they’re usually riffed exactly the same. For more Paul F. Tompkins, he was also brought back for 2017’s live show Summer Shorts Beach Party, where he joined the gang for two more shorts. Moving on to the movie, here we have this rather inane film from 1958 about a morbid birthday bash at a supposed haunted house. Vincent Price hosts and invites a bunch of strangers because...whatever. But is the house really haunted? Is there a murderer among them? What follows is a series of twists, turns, and “oh come on” moments. Admittedly I have seen next to nothing of William Castle’s “spook”-tabular filmography. I saw this movie many years ago and thought it was stupid. But I saw 13 Ghosts last year and thought it was fun. I might need to see more to get a feel for him, but House on Haunted Hill seems to be his best known/beloved film, so if this is as good as it gets I’m not sure I want to delve deeper. What I do know is that it just isn’t October unless you watch something with Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, or Vincent Price. Lugosi has some riffed material out there while Karloff has been granted mercy for years despite having some dogs on his resume. I think this is Price’s only riffed film (I could be wrong), but I decided to throw this into my Schlocktober bash because it’s pretty well known. Possibly due to its public domain status, and also partially because it was remade in 1999. But say what you will about this movie, but at least it’s better than the unwatchable remake. However I can say a lot about this movie. It for the most part makes no sense once revelations start pouring in by the bucket full. It might have played better had they gone whole hog on the haunted house aspect instead of introducing a needlessly complicated and underdeveloped murder plot. Everyone here is at their hammiest, with Vincent Price being more Vincent Price than you could possibly imagine Vincent Price being. There’s so much sensuality for the macabre here, and that’s the way Price fans like it. For quite a while this was one of my favorite live shows. I think a few shows have topped it since, with my current reigning king being this year’s Samurai Cop, but this is still a fun one. The movie is so deliciously outdated that watching it with an audience is a hoot. The riffing itself gains momentum the crazier the film gets to the point where gags are rapid fire and constantly hilarious. The leprechaun quips alone are worth the price of admission. One pleasure of these early live shows is that there’s more of an attempt to up the ante and put on something showier than newer shows. For example during a talkier section of the movie the boys put on a skit where they fire Kevin and replace him with Paul F. Tompkins. Having not been up to speed on the movie, Tompkins fails miserably and is booted off leading to them to invite Kevin back. Stuff like this is fun and it keeps me coming back to these shows even all these years later. And of the earliest shows, House on Haunted Hill stands proud among them. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959)Seven people spend the night in a spooky mansion. Will they survive to see dawn? Directed by the schlock master showman himself William Castle, this is a cheese-y good time. Fun for the whole family.
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Post by Neverending on Oct 15, 2019 16:21:51 GMT -5
Managed to grab Ace in the Hole and blind-buy Cronenberg's The Brood. 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEENTHE BROOD (1979)David Cronenberg is a master of the horror genre... but at the same time... not really. He seems to enjoy horror as a concept but not very much as an execution. He always seemed more interested in science-fiction, fantasy, eroticism and tragic drama. None of that can be said about The Brood. The Brood is 100% horror and Cronenberg excels at it. It tells the story of a crazy woman who gives birth to a group of deformed children who go around murdering people. It's very silly, but fun to watch because of Cronenberg's nightmarish style of filmmaking. If you haven't seen it, check it out as soon as possible. A I just watched it. It was..... a movie? It was also really really Canadian. And now, Doomsday continues his ongoing series of watching horror movies he's never seen before for Halloween......The Brood (1979)
What I like best about Cronenberg is that he can craft a movie from the ground up. He can set a tone, establish characters, and create an atmosphere before things even really get going, no matter how crazy the movie becomes. The Brood opens on a rather unique visual; a psychologist Dr. Raglan (Oliver Reed) is in the middle of a small auditorium surrounded by observers and students. He's treating one of his patients who exhibits physical changes as the treatment continues. The psychologist is practicing a new method of psychotherapy known as 'psychoplasmics.' Frank, the ex-husband of one of the Raglan's patients, is skeptical of the treatment and refuses to bring their daughter Candy in to visit her mother. Soon after, Frank and his family fall victims to attacks by small, childlike creatures, creatures without tongues or belly buttons but possess a knack for bashing peoples' heads in. Frank starts putting the pieces together and when his daughter is ultimately kidnapped he comes face to face with the mysterious Dr. Raglan and his own wife who is holding her own dark secret. I've been able to catch up on a lot of essential Cronenberg the past couple years. Movies like Scanners, Videodrome and even The Brood might not be for everyone but they do possess a certain patience when it comes to their execution. When I watch Cronenberg movies they show me how effective horror can be if you take the time to invest in the pacing of the movie, character motivation and how much to reveal as the film moves along. These in addition to the graphic and grotesque visuals that Cronenberg displays prevent movies like The Brood from feeling like campy schlock. While The Brood is ultimately a B-movie that doesn't take itself too seriously, it demonstrates that Cronenberg does have a good grasp on overall storytelling and what elements need to be present in order for the actual 'horror' and suspense to be effective.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 15, 2019 18:17:32 GMT -5
Colour me hyped.
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Post by PG Cooper on Oct 15, 2019 18:26:18 GMT -5
Day Thirteen: Thrillers About the DerangedNight Must FallWell this was a pleasant surprise. I mostly PVRd Night Must Fall to watch something in tribute to Albert Finney and it turned out to be a gripping little thriller. The British film seems bluntly inspired by Psycho, with both films focusing on psychologically unbalanced young men who struggle with relating to women and act in violence. If the film has any major flaws, it's that it plays its hand a little too early. It's clear from the start that Danny is unhinged and the pace is perhaps a bit too leisurely. The rest of the film, however, is really solid. Director Karel Reisz effectively blends a sort of kitchen-sink realism popular in British films of the day with a more heightened thriller. The setting and art direction is very grounded, but the cinematography is elevated. Additionally, Albert Finney gives a really strong lead performance, both charming and unnerving, and his final scenes are pretty gripping. Night Must Fall was something of a failure on release and today is mostly forgotten (its Wikipedia page is pitifully underwritten). But I quite enjoyed it. It's no classic, but it's a rock solid thriller that deserves to be rediscovered. B+Play Misty for MeClint Eastwood's early works as a director are generally considered mostly as star vehicles for the man as an action star, but Play Misty for Me hints that he always had more complex ambitions as a filmmaker. Not that Play Misty for Me is a complex or especially ambitious film, but it is notable that Eastwood chose to present himself as a victim rather than a badass gunslinger or hardened cop in his directorial debut. Of course, that's also kind of the problem. Eastwood was fresh off The Man with No Name and Dirty Harry when he made this, and by extension, it's hard to feel too concerned for him. You never completely buy that he's in danger. Otherwise, this is actually a solid little thriller. I like Jessica Walter a lot and the film is both a prototype for movies like Fatal Attraction, and debateably the slasher genre more broadly. And the set-pieces are pretty solid too. Fun watch. B-
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Post by Dracula on Oct 15, 2019 18:27:03 GMT -5
I'd keep expectations in check, that movie ends well and has some interesting undertones, but... a lot of it is about weird looking killer elves.
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