Touch of Evil

 Year:  1958

Director:  Orson Welles

Screenplay:  Orson Welles, based on the novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson

Starring:  Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Orson Welles, Joseph Calleia, Akim Tamiroff, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Crime, thriller, film noir

In an unnamed town on the Mexican-U.S. border, a wealthy American businessman and his girlfriend are killed by a bomb planted in the car.  Upstanding Mexican cop Miguel Vargas (Heston) and his new bride, Susie (Leigh), witness the explosion and cut short their honeymoon while Vargas becomes drawn into the investigation, coming up against powerful, corrupt police captain Hank Quinlan (Welles).

This is one of the best, as well as one of the last, of the classic film noir.  The term film noir was coined by French film critics to describe a run of stylish American thrillers and crime dramas that featured bleak, cynical and often nihilistic attitudes, and which flourished in the 1940s and '50s.  Based on the 1956 novel Badge of Evil by Whit Masterson, this is a surprisingly dark thriller, with it's striking visuals, including run-down locations, off-kilter camera angles, extreme close-ups, grotesque characters, and stark, black and white photography, the film has a genuinely nightmarish feel.  The main flaw is its racially insensitive casting, with white actors, such as Charlton Heston and Marlene Dietrich, cast as Mexican characters.  Although it is worth pointing out that the Mexican Vargas (albeit played by Heston) is the noble hero, while the white American Quinlan is the chief antagonist.  In the character of Hank Quinlan, Orson Welles creates one of the screen's most memorable monsters.  A racist, corrupt cop who plants evidence to frame suspects, and has all the powerful people in the town in his pocket, and who seem to orbit him like satellites around a planet.  The ageing, gargantuan Quinlan, an alcoholic, who constantly eats candy bars, and walks with a cane, he seems almost to be falling apart in front of our eyes, and yet there are flickers of the tattered remnants of nobility in his small, narrow eyes, and in his relationship with ex-lover Tana (Marlene Dietrich under very heavy makeup), who appears to be the only person who really knows and cares about him, there is a kind of tenderness, making him more damaged than truly evil.  A miscast Charlton Heston (who looks kind of like a young Sean Connery here) is okay, and Janet Leigh is good as Vargas' new wife, Susie, even if she doesn't have much to do.  The scene where she is attacked in a remote motel almost foreshadows her most famous role in Psycho (1962).  The film was taken away from Welles and re-edited by the studio without his approval.  For example, in Welles' version there are no opening credits, and the film opens with a famous sequence where a ticking time bomb is placed in the boot of a car.  An unsuspecting couple get in the car and drive off.  We follow the car through the streets, there is no score, instead we hear street sounds:  Music spilling from bars and restaurants, police whistles, car noises, muffled conversations, and then the car explodes.  In the release version, the credits are splashed over Welles' carefully composed shots, and the street sounds replaced by loud, brassy music.  A furious Welles penned a 58 page memo outlining his vision for the film.  In 1998, the film was restored and re-edited according to Welles' instructions.  Now it can be seen for the masterpiece it is.

Orson Welles, Victor Millan, Joseph Calleia and Charlton Heston in Touch of Evil

The Wonder

Year:  2022

Director:  Sebastián Lelio

Screenplay:  Emma Donoghue, Sebastián Lelio and Alice Birch, based on the novel The Wonder by Emma Donoghue

Starring:  Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kila Lord Cassidy, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Dermot Crowley, Josie Walker, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Period drama

1862: English nurse Elizabeth Wright (Pugh) travels to a remote rural village in Ireland to investigate a young girl, Anna O'Donnell (Kila Lord Cassidy) who, according to her family, has not eaten for four months, and yet still appears to be in good health.  

Based on Emma Donoghue's 2016 novel, The Wonder is a dark and powerful psychological period drama. Its slow moving, meditative pace with bleak, windswept vistas of moorland and dark, cramped interiors, cast a powerful spell.  The film's message of belief and the stories that we tell ourselves and each other is hammered home a little too much, including a strange prologue in a film studio emphasising to the viewer that, yes, we are being told a story.  It is also about the dangers of belief, and even in this day and age, it is unusual to see a film that has such a strongly secular message.  However it also deals with how much people need stories and need something to hold on to.  Elizabeth has previously lost her baby and has been abandoned by her husband, she is also traumatised by her experiences nursing the sick and injured in the Crimean War, and copes with her trauma and despair by taking laudanum and also pricking herself with pins.  The O'Donnell family and the village itself are still suffering the after effects of the Great Famine, and feel like they need a miracle, as well as living in a devoutly religious and patriarchal society, cut off from much of the rest of the world.  Florence Pugh gives a powerful performance as the skeptical, grieving nurse.  Kila Lord Cassidy is very good as the "fasting girl", and her real-life mother, Elaine Cassidy, plays her character's devout mother, paralysed with grief for the loss of her teenage son.  Niamh Algar plays the taciturn and slightly sinister elder O'Donnell daughter, and Tom Burke plays the charismatic newspaper reporter who originally came form the village, and is immediately convinced that Anna is faking, but also understands the way the villager's minds work.  While some of the film's more offbeat touches don't always work, it is a beautiful, dark and troubling film, with fantastic performances. 

  Florence Pugh and Kila Lord Cassidy in The Wonder

Funeral Parade of Roses

 Year:  1969

Director:  Toshio Matsumoto

Screenplay:  Toshio Matsumoto

Starring:  Peter (Shinnosuke Ikehata), Osamu Ogasawara, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Emiko Azuma

Running Time: 105 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Eddie (Peter), a young transgender woman living in Tokyo, works in a gay bar called the Genet, where she is having a relationship with the bar's owner (Tsuchiya), who is already living with and in a relationship with the bar's "madame", Leda (Ogasawara).

This film is essentially an updated, gay take on the Ancient Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles.  The movie is a fragmented, kaleidoscopic range of cinematic techniques and storytelling styles.  The narrative flashes back and forth in time, cuts in news footage, skewed camera angles, on-screen captions, fast editing, and in one sequence dialogue is shown in comic-style speech bubbles.  There are also documentary style sequences throughout where the actors are interviewed as themselves about the film they are making and about their lives, gender identity and sexuality.  The soundtrack moves from classical music, '60s pop and updated versions of traditional Western music.  The famous tune "The More We Get Together" is a recurring musical theme throughout the film.  The film is often frustrating, frequently baffling, sometimes very shocking and also often very funny.  The constant exuberance and invention means that it never gets boring, and there are strong performances, particularly from Peter, the stage name for singer, dancer and actor Shinnosuke Ikehata, in the lead role.  Some of the film's themes, about the political tensions as well as the Tokyo avant-garde scene of the time, don't really translate well to modern, non-Japanese audiences, but it is worth watching as a snapshot of the underground scene of late sixties Tokyo, as well as a milestone of LGBTQIA cinema.  One of the film's notable fans was director Stanley Kubrick, who credited the film as one of his stylistic inspirations for A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Funeral Parade of Roses

The Hunger

 Year:  1983

Director: Tony Scott

Screenplay: Ivan Davis and Michael Thomas, based on the novel The Hunger by Whitley Strieber

Starring:  Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie, Susan Sarandon

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  Horror

New York City, the 1980s:  Miriam Blaylock (Deneuve) is a vampire who has existed since at least Ancient Egypt, her first encountered her current partner, John (Bowie) in the 18th Century, when he became the latest in a long line of lovers.  However, while Miriam doesn't age, all of her lovers, however, while their ageing process is delayed, they do eventually begin to age very suddenly and at a highly accelerated rate, leaving behind dried out husks.  However, they do not die, but Miriam, who refuses to kill them, condemns them to a kind of living death, locking them up forever in coffin-life boxes.  This time, however, Miriam and John set their sights on research scientist Dr. Sarah Roberts (Sarandon), who is engaged on research to delay ageing.  However, the question is whether she will be able to save John, or if she will become Miriam's latest companion. 

The Hunger is a stylish, sensual vampire film, based on the novel by horror writer Whitley Strieber, who is probably best known for his book Communion (1987) which describes his allegedly true encounters with aliens.  While this is a vampire film, the word "vampire" is never mentioned in the film, and the vampires are different to the more commonly depicted bloodsuckers: John and Miriam feed off blood, but instead of biting their victim's necks with fangs, they cut the throats with daggers hidden in the ankh pendants that they both wear.  They can also survive in sunlight, and their main power is that they are stronger and harder to kill than humans, and also that their ageing is stopped or at least delayed.  This is the debut film from Tony Scott, brother of director Ridley, who went on to direct stylish action films and thrillers such as Top Gun (1986), True Romance (1993) and Man on Fire (2004).  The film feels very much a product of its time, with the stylish visuals, and the film is stylised to a fault.  Characters are often filmed backlit, so they appear as silhouettes, there are constantly billowing, diaphanous curtains and drapes, there are doves flying throughout John and Miriam's cavernous New York town house (full, of course, with antiques), there is slow motion, fragmented editing, and most of the interiors are filmed in half shadow, with shafts of light illuminating the characters.  The problem is that the film is so stylised, it never really gets scary, and despite the amount of sex and blood, there is very little actual passion, it feels like everything comes second place to the visuals.  Before making The Hunger, Tony Scott had been interested in making a film of the Anne Rice novel Interview with the Vampire, and the film does have something of an Anne Rice feel to it, with it's focus on the loneliness of immortality and the angst of becoming a predatory vampire.  Even the hospitals and research laboratories seem to favour mood lighting.  Catherine Deneuve is impressive as statuesque, bisexual vampire Miriam, David Bowie is effective as the increasingly desperate John, acting under layers of increasingly heavy make-up, and Susan Sarandon is good as the scientist Sarah, who becomes drawn into the Blaylock's world.  Willem Dafoe makes a brief, early appearance as one of a pair of teenage thugs who harasses Sarah at a phone booth.  The film had mixed reviews at the time of its release, however it has become a cult film, particularly among Goths.  The song "Bela Lugosi's Dead" by the band Bauhaus, which is sometimes cited as the first goth rock record, plays over the opening credits, and Bauhaus appear as a band in a night club.

David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger
  

Barbarian

 Year:  2022

Director:  Zach Cregger

Screenplay:  Zach Cregger

Starring:  Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Horror

In town for a job interview, Tess Marshall (Campbell) arrives at a rental house she has booked in a run down area of Detroit.  However, when she arrives, she discovers that the house has been double-booked and that there is already a man staying there, Keith (Skarsgård).  Despite the initial awkwardness, Tess decides that she trusts Keith enough to spend the night in the house.  However, when Tess discovers a secret passageway in the basement, it becomes clear that they are not alone on the house.

Barbarian is a film that seems to be going one way, before veering off sharply into other directions.   It takes time to build up, allowing the audience to spend time with the characters, before the horror kicks in, and when it does, it does so with some of the most surprisingly gruesome images seen in mainstream cinema for a long time.  The film boasts some fine performances from Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long, as a charismatic actor who becomes embroiled in a sex scandal.  There is also a strong message about the threat men pose towards women.  The nervous interplay between the suspicious Tess and the friendly Keith, who can't understand why, if their places were reversed, she wouldn't have let him in out of the rain.  As well as AJ, the actor played by Justin Long, who after being accused of assault by a fellow actor, doesn't see what he did wrong, in his words "she just took some convincing".  Being played by a likeable actor such as Long, makes the character all the more disturbing.  The film also doesn't skimp on exciting horror thrills, making this one of the best new horror films I have seen this year.

Georgina Campbell in Barbarian

Censor

 Year:  2021

Director:  Prano Bailey-Bond

Screenplay:  Prano Bailey-Bond and Anthony Fletcher

Starring:  Niamh Algar, Nicholas Burns, Vincent Franklin, Sophia La Porta, Adrian Schiller, Michael Smiley

Running Time:  84 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Britain, the 1980s:  The country is in the midst of a moral panic over so-called "Video Nasties".  Enid Baines (Algar) is a film censor who takes a hard line on cutting or banning violent films.  One day Enid is assigned to classify a horror film called Don't Go in the Church which brings up distressing memories of her sister's unexplained disappearance when they were both children.  Enid becomes convinced that one of the actors in the film is her sister, and as she investigates finds the line between reality and on-screen illusion dangerously blurring.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s home video took off in Britain in a very big way, partly due to the amount of people who were being laid off from their jobs at the time, finding themselves with redundancy money and an unexpected amount of time to fill.  All the films shown in cinemas had to be classified by the British Board of Film Censors (latterly the British Board of Film Classification), but video was exempt from that, and so a lot of films that had either been cut, banned outright, or had never even been submitted to the BBFC were released uncut to buy or rent on video, often with lurid covers.  Before long, the Conservative government, right-wing media and other self-appointed moral guardians whipped up a furore over what they called "Video Nasties" resulting in notoriously strict censorship in Britain.  This is the context in which Censor takes place.  It is an effective, quietly disturbing horror film, set mostly in dull, half-lit offices and homes, with characters dressed in beige and cheap suits.  it also captures the look of the cheap horror films that were often deemed "video nasties".  Niamh Algar gives a powerful performance as Enid, who views her job as censor as a moral mission to "protect" people.  She has few if any friends, and Algar does very well with a mostly silent performance, particularly as her stern detachment starts to crack.  Prano Bailey-Bond directs with real style, although the film leaves us with more questions than answers, the ambiguous conclusion refusing to tie up the loose ends, a choice which may be tantalising to some viewers, while frustrating to others.     

Niamh Algar in Censor

Naked Lunch

 Year:  1991

Director:  David Cronenberg

Screenplay:  David Cronenberg, based on the novel Naked Lunch by William S, Burroughs

Starring:  Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider

Running Time:  115 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, fantasy

New York City, 1953:  Pest exterminator William Lee (Weller) discovers that his wife, Joan (Davis), has become addicted to the yellow powder he uses to kill bugs.  Lee is contacted by a giant talking insect that claims that he is a secret agent and that the bug is his boss.  It further informs him that his wife is a non-human agent of the sinister Interzone Incorporated.  Lee accidentally kills Joan while attempting to shoot a glass off her head.  Lee flees to Interzone, a "notorious free port on the North African coast", and finds himself in a surreal nightmare of giant, talking bugs, shapeshifting typewriters and monstrous "Mugwumps".

William S. Burroughs' controversial novel, Naked Lunch, was first published in 1959, and has baffled, appalled and fascinated readers ever since.  The "novel' (for want of a better term) is a bizarre and often incoherent mishmash of vignettes and stories without any conventional structure or plot, and had been widely considered unfilmable.  However directors such as Stanley Kubrick had attempted to crack it.  In the 1960s experimental filmmaker Anthony Balch attempted to make a musical adaptation with a script written by Burroughs himself starring Mick Jagger, and, at one stage, Dennis Hopper.  Cronenberg solved the problem by largely jettisoning the book.  The film instead is more structured around Burroughs' life and the writing of the novel, mixed with various elements of Burroughs writing, not all of which come from Naked Lunch.  Cronenberg stated that the difficulty of making a film about a writer, is that the act of writing itself is not particularly exciting to watch.  He solved it by merging Burroughs' life with his fantasies.  The name William Lee was often used by Burroughs as his alter ego, and sometimes a pseudonym on some of his books, and Burroughs did kill his wife while trying to shoot a glass from her head, and Burroughs considered this incident the start of his life as a writer.  Some of Burroughs friends, such as writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Paul Bowles, appear in thinly disguised portrayals.  The cadaverous, pale-eyed Peter Weller, who is probably best known for RoboCop (1987), is well cast as in the  lead role, looking and sounding a lot like a 1940s film noir gumshoe.  Judy Davis plays the dual role of Joan Lee and Joan Frost, a double of Lee's wife who he meets in Interzone.  Ian Holm plays Joan Frost's husband, the sinister writer Tom (based on American writer Paul Bowles), and Roy Scheider plays the evil Doctor Benway, one of Burroughs' most memorable characters.  Interzone itself was a frequent setting for Burroughs' writing, and was the title of 1989 book of short stories.  It's based on the International Zone of Tangiers, where Burroughs lived for a time.  The fact that Interzone is very obviously created on soundstages, helps make it seem less a place than a state of mind.  The film features some startling special effects and creatures.  As bizarre and graphic as the film is in places, it is still much more restrained than Burroughs' imaginings, which displeased some fans.  Certainly the film is more David Cronenberg than William Burroughs, in it's tone and style, reducing the novel's themes of drugs and particularly toning down the novel's sexual elements, and making it more a film about writing, however Cronenberg's detached style of directing, chimes well with Burroughs' dry, dispassionate prose style.  It is also possibly the best introduction to Burroughs for a mainstream audience.

They were both disappointed with their Tinder date:  Peter Weller and friend in Naked Lunch

  

The Parallax View

 Year:  1974

Director:  Alan J. Pakula

Screenplay:  David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the novel The Parallax View by Loren Singer

Starring:  Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels, Paula Prentiss

Running Time:  102 minutes

Genre:  Thriller

Three years after a politician is murdered at the Seattle Space Needle, the witnesses seem to be dying of apparent accidents or natural causes.  Television journalist Lee Carter (Prentiss) who witnessed the murder is convinced that the witnesses are being deliberately killed, and that she is next on the list.  She contacts her ex-boyfriend, hard-bitten newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) for help.  Joe doesn't believe her at first, until Lee dies of an apparent drug overdose.  Joe starts to investigate and finds himself drawn into a complex and dangerous conspiracy, centred around the sinister Parallax Corporation.

 As American as apple pie

Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, with an intelligent and sometimes darkly funny screenplay by David Giles and Lorenzo Semple Jr., The Parallax View is a surprisingly bleak work, with a genuinely shocking conclusion, but it still has all the ingredient of an exciting thriller: fights, chases (including an impressive car chase), and a desperate race against time.  Warren Beatty gives an impressive performance as the tough, but surprisingly vulnerable reporter, whose silver tongue and quick fists do little to top him quickly getting out of his depth.  Director Alan J. Pakula, who had previously made Klute (1971) and would go on to make All the President's Men (1976) creates an atmosphere of chilly menace.  Throughout the film there is this constant sense of a vast conspiracy, even the way the film is photographed, with many scenes being viewed from a distance, or from overhead, putting the viewer in the place of a spy observing the proceedings.  The film's most impressive set-piece is the striking assassin training sequence where a series of fragmented still images and words are flashed in quick sensation.  Following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, not to mention Watergate and Richard Nixon, the 1970s were an era of bleak political thrillers, but the theme of paranoia, alienation and conspiracy still feels very much of the moment.  

The Parallax View
  

Suspiria

Year:  1977

Director:  Dario Argento

Screenplay:  Dario Argento and Daria Nicolodi

Starring:  Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Barbara Magnolfi, Susanna Javicoli, Eva Axén, Alida Valli, Joan Bennett

Running Time:  99 minutes

Genre:  Horror

American ballet student Suzy Bannion (Harper) arrives at a prestigious German dance school, Tanz Akademie.  On the night she arrives, a fellow student is brutally murdered.  As Suzy settles in to the strange academy, a series of bizarre and disturbing events occur, leading her to the conclusion that the school is a front for a murderous coven of witches.

"Bad luck is not brought on by broken mirrors, but by broken minds."

Italian director Dario Argento is arguably the most influential Italian horror filmmaker.  Starting out as a film critic, and then working as a screenwriter, including working with Sergio Leone and Bernardo Bertolucci on the script for Once upon a Time in the West (1969), before making his name as a director with a series of influential giallo films (a popular mix of horror and thriller, which were forerunners of the American "slasher" films).  Suspiria, co-written with Daria Nicolodi, with whom Argento was in a romantic relationship at the time, and who had previously starred in Argento's film Deep Red (1975), marked Argento's first foray into supernatural horror.  The film was partly inspired by Thomas De Quincey's 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis, and marked the first of a trilogy known as the "Three Mothers Trilogy" continuing with Inferno (1980) and concluding with Mother of Tears (2007).  While this is Argento's first foray into fantasy, it still has elements of his giallo work: a black-gloved killer, elaborate and gruesome death scenes, and the plot point of the lead character hearing or witnessing an important clue early in the film, which she only remembers or understands the full significance of towards the end.  Right form the start the film opens with deafening, genuinely disturbing music from rock band Goblin, which mixes atonal rock, a kind of nightmare lullaby, and distorted human voices (including Argento himself) shrieking "Witch!"  The film itself doesn't appear to take place in any recognisable real world, with lurid colours, skewed angles, sudden cuts, a swooping, mobile camera, even something as simple as an airport's automatic door opening seems loaded with dread.  The interior of the academy itself with brightly coloured rooms, in which everything seems slightly hostile and alien, becomes like another character in the film.  The dialogue has the strange stilted delivery common in many Argento films,  due in part to the fact that the dialogue was dubbed after filming, which was common practice in Italian film at the time, but that accentuates the oddness of the thing, and makes the film more alien.  Pale, wide-eyed Jessica Harper walks through the whole film like she is in a nightmare.  Argento has never really had much interest in the niceties of logic and plot, and this is one of the times where this approach really works for the material,  It is like a nightmare and so follows a strange kind of dream logic, and so it is Argento's finest work.

Jessica Harper in Suspiria

Phenomena

 Year:  1985

Director:  Dario Argento

Screenplay:  Franco Ferrini and Dario Argento

Starring:  Jennifer Connelly, Daria Nicolodi, Dalila Di Lazzaro, Donald Pleasence, Patrick Bauchau

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  Horror

American teenager Jennifer Corvino (Connelly) arrives at an exclusive Swiss boarding school and soon discovers that the nearby area is being plagued by a vicious serial killer.  Jennifer, it turns out, has the ability to psychically communicate with any kind of insect, and teams up with elderly, wheelchair-bound Scottish entomologist John McGregor (Pleasance), and his intelligent chimpanzee, to track down the killer.

Dario Argento is generally regarded as one of the greatest Italian horror filmmakers.  Despite featuring a lot of Argento hallmarks, Phenomena is far from his best work.  It feels like a mix of the giallo films that Argento made his name with (black-gloved killer stalking young women, point of view shots, the main character witnessing an important detail early one which she is afterwards unable to remember, inept police investigation, and an  overly convoluted final reveal), with dark adult fairy tale (Jennifer's mystical powers, surreal nightmare imagery) and gothic romance (Jennifer Connelly spends a lot of her time running through a dark forest at night in a billowing white nightgown, as might be seen on the covers of numerous '70s paperback originals).  While it doesn't seem to be intentionally funny, the film is so ridiculous it's hard not to laugh at Jennifer's psychic bond with bugs (including teaming up with a fly to find evidence), Donald Pleasence's Scottish accent and the heroic chimp.  The performances are pretty bad, even from normally very good actors such as Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence, who seems to be playing the whole thing for comedy.  Argento's skill at creating arresting images generates some interest, but there are very few of the trademark elaborate set-pieces that Argento can be so skilled at.  While the film is gruesome, gore fans may be disappointed at the comparative lack of bloodshed on display.  The score, from regular Argento collaborators Goblin, mixes lilting fairy-tale style music with sudden bursts of loud heavy metal, along with music from Bill Wyman, Iron Maiden and Motörhead among others.  The plot makes absolutely no sense at all.  It's fun if your in the right frame of mind for it, and the climax is so over the top it's quite entertaining.  On it's original release in the US and the UK the film was retitled Creepers with 20 minutes of footage cut.

Jennifer Connelly in Phenomena

Halloween Ends

 Year: 2022

Director:  David Gordon Green

Screenplay:  Paul Brad Logan, Chris Bernier, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Andi Matichak, Rohan Campbell, Will Patton, Kyle Richards, James Jude Courtney

Running Time:  111 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Four years have passed since serial killer Michael Myers' (Courtney) latest bloodbath, and the residents of the small town of Haddonfield are starting to heal.  Corey Cunningham (Campbell) who accidentally caused the death of a young boy he was babysitting, has since become the town pariah.  Allyson (Matichak), whose parents were killed by Myers and has since been living with her grandmother Laurie Strode (Curtis), befriends Corey.  After being savagely beaten up and left for dead by some bullies, Corey encounters but survives a weakened Michael Myers, and takes it upon himself to continue Michael's murderous legacy.

Halloween Ends is the thirteenth film in the Halloween franchise, and the third and final instalment in the trilogy directed by David Gordon Green which began with Halloween (2018) and continued with Halloween Kills (2021).  The Green series carries on from the original Halloween (1978), discarding the previous umpteen sequels, and Halloween Ends is supposed to be the final Halloween films, although I, for one, very much doubt that it will be.  Halloween Ends is a disappointing entry in the series.  While it does have some very good things in it.  It feels as if the film was intended to be a serious examination of trauma, grief and guilt, but they needed to add Halloween horror elements to make it fit into the series.  The stalk-and-slash horror elements doesn't fit with the more serious and darker aspects.  Another thing is that Michael Myers barely appears in the film.  The main antagonist is Corey who kind of becomes a Michael Myers protege, and he even seems to have Myers' ability to appear and disappear suddenly, as well as surprising strength.  Corey even gets his glasses broken  early in the film and seems to manage without them with no problem whatsoever and nary a stumble.  The performances are good, particularly from Jamie Lee Curtis, and there are some enjoyable set pieces, but the whole film is not scary and, worst of all, is kind of dull.

Jamie Lee Curtis and James Jude Courtney in Halloween Ends

The Wolf House

 Year:  2018

Directors:  Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña

Screenplay:  Cristobal León, Joaquín Cociña and Alejandra Moffat

Starring (voices):  Amalia Kassai, Rainer Krause

Running Time:  75 minutes

Genre:  Animation, horror, fantasy

Maria, a young girl in an isolated German commune in Chile, escapes into the forest where she finds a strange house.  Inside the house she discovers two pigs who slowly become human, and she raises them as her children.  Meanwhile the house itself seems to change to reflect Maria's emotional state.

This Chilean film is a strange stop-motion animation, which has it's inspirations in fairy tales, urban legends and the real-life Colonial Dignidad cult.  The film opens with a brief live action introduction, presenting the film as a production made by the cult to introduce it to new or potential recruits.  The Wolf House is the first feature length project by animators Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña, who had previously made some well-received short films, including a music video for the rock band The Smile, an off-shoot of Radiohead.  The film is genuinely surreal and deeply disturbing.  It feels genuinely nightmarish and has something of the feel of legendary Czech animator Jan Švankmajer.  However, it is very much it's own thing, and is definitely recommended to horror and fantasy fans.

The Wolf House

Shock

Year:  1977

Director:  Mario Bava

Screenplay:  Lamberto Bava, Francesco Barbieri, Alessandro Parenzo, Dardano Sacchetti

Starring:  Daria Nicolodi, John Steiner, David Colin Jr., Ivan Rassimov

Running Time:  95 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Dora (Nicolodi) moves back into the house where she lived with her husband who died in an apparent suicide several years before.  Dora is now remarried to Carlo (Steiner), an airline pilot, and she has a young son, Marco (Colin Jr.), from her previous marriage.  The family begin renovating the house, but Marco begins to exhibit increasingly disturbing behaviour, and as strange happenings begin to pile up Dora becomes convinced that they are being haunted by the malevolent spirit of her dead husband.

Mario Bava was one of the most important directors of Italian horror films, with his low-budget, but stylish films influencing filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Tim Burton,  and Francis Ford Coppola.  Shock was the last feature film that Bava completed before his death of a heart attack in April 1980, and his son Lamberto Bava, who co-wrote the film, served as an uncredited co-director for some scenes.  In Shock, Bava largely leaves behind the gruesome Grand Guignol excesses that had been his trademark for a slow-burning tale of supernatural horror, with gore largely absent until the final quarter of an hour.  While this is not Bava's best film, it does have a lot to recommend it.  The direction is stylish, and there are some arresting images.  Daria Nicolodi, who would become a familiar face to Italian horror fans through her appearances in five films by her then husband Dario Argento, gives a strong performance in the central role, and she pretty much dominates the film.  David Colin Jr. is fine, if not particularly impressive, in his role as the creepy child, who may, or may not, be possessed by the vengeful ghost.  There are plot holes, and the whole thing is very silly at times, and there are places where the low budget is painfully obvious, and some fans may be disappointed at the relative lack of gore, but it is a fun little spook show, which should entertain lovers of ghost stories.

Daria Nicolodi in Shock

To Live and Die in L.A.

 Year:  1985

Director:  William Friedkin

Screenplay:  William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich, based on the novel To Live and Die in L.A. by Gerald Petievich

Starring:  William Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Pankow, Debra Feuer, John Turturro, Darlanne Fluegel, Dean Stockwell

Running Time:  116 minutes

Genre:  Action, crime, thriller

When his partner is killed investigating a counterfeiting operation, corrupt Secret Service Agent Richard Chance (Petersen) is determined to bring down master counterfeiter Rick Masters (Dafoe) by any means necessary.  However, Chance is forced to team up with by-the-book agent John Vukovich (Pankow), who opposes Chance's anything goes philosophy.

Adapted from the 1984 novel by Gerald Petievich, this gritty crime thriller returns director William Friedkin to the seamy world of amoral cops and brutal criminals that he previously explored in The French Connection (1974), the film that made his name.  In fact, aside from being set in Los Angeles rather than New York and dealing with counterfeiters rather than international drug runners, there are some similarities between To Live and Die in L.A. and The French Connection, both deal with ruthless cops (or, more accurately, Secret Service agents in To Live and Die) who will break any rules they have to to bring down a powerful enemy,  and To Live and De in L.A. also features it's own spectacular car chase set piece.  Despite being set in December and January, Los Angeles seems to burn under blazing sunlight, and beautiful pink evening skies (I don't know, I've never been to Los Angeles, maybe it really is like that in the bleak midwinter).  The film looks beautiful throughout, and has a pulsing score from British new wave band Wang Chung.  There is a gritty, authentic feel to the proceedings, which are filmed in some of the less glamorous parts of the city.  The cast is impressive with a number of actors who weren't well known at the time, but later went on to become major stars, notably Willem Dafoe and John Turturro.  William Petersen is believably callous as the repellant Richard Chase, who is the film's nominal hero and extorts his informer Ruth (Darlanne Fluegel) for information and sexual favours, under threat of having her parole revoked.  Willem Dafoe is good as the murderous counterfeiter,  John Turturro is convincingly desperate as the member of Dafoe's gang who Chance arrested and tries to make a deal with.  Darlanne Fleugel takes the acting honours as the unfortunate collateral damage in Chance's war on crime, and her desperation to break free and make a fresh start is heartbreaking.  The big problem with the film is, as good as it is, there is really no-one to root for here.  The ostensible "heroes" aren't much better than the crooks they are chasing.  However, this is an involving and exciting slice of '80s action thriller.

William Petersen and John Pankow in To Live and Die in L.A.

Foxy Brown

 Year:  1974

Director:  Jack Hill

Screenplay:  Jack Hill

Starring:  Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown, Terry Carter, Kathryn Loder, Harry Holcombe

Running Time:  91 minutes

Genre:  Action, crime

 

When her narcotics agent boyfriend is murdered by a powerful crime ring, Foxy Brown (Grier) poses as a  call girl to infiltrate the syndicate.

This is one of the defining blaxploitation films.  Blaxploitation (the term is a portmanteau word made up of "black" and "exploitation") was a subgenre of American action and crime films that were very popular in the 1970s, which featured predominantly black lead characters and were ostensibly aimed at black audiences.  These films were criticised at the time and since for perpetuating stereotypes of African-Americans, but they were also one of the few places where black characters and stories were shown.  Directed by exploitation veteran Jack Hill, who had previously worked with Pam Grier on Coffy (1972), the film is full of violent action, and it all moves along at a good pace.  Pam Grier is fantastic as Foxy.  Antonio Fargas, who is best known as Huggy Bear in Starsky & Hutch (1975-1979), plays Foxy's deadbeat brother.  Kathryn Loder is good as the sinister head of the "modelling agency" which is the front for the crime ring.  Veteran exploitation actor Sid Haig appears as a pilot who runs drugs between the US and Mexico.  The film does have some social commentary, Foxy has connections to the local Black Panthers, who help keep the streets safe from drug pushers.  Foxy also is in favour of direct, vigilante action against crime as opposed to her upstanding boyfriend who believes in the due process of law.  The film is funny, fast and dynamic.  The fashions and jive-talking dialogue scream 1970s, as well as the funky soul soundtrack featuring songs by Willie Hutch, and the film had kind of a second life in the late 1990s when there was a lot of '70s nostalgia, and has been a heavy influence on Quentin Tarantino, who cast Pam Grier as the lead in his homage to blaxploitation Jackie Brown (1998).  However, the film does have plot holes, and there are elements of it that are certainly not politically correct, particularly in the film's mos disturbing sequence where Foxy is kidnapped by the villains, forcibly injected with heroin and sexually assaulted (although the assault isn't shown, but her violent retribution certainly is).  

Pam Grier is Foxy Brown
  

Christine

Year:  1983

Director:  John Carpenter

Screenplay:  Bill Phillips, based on the novel Christine by Stephen King

Starring:  Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Roberts Blossom

Running Time:  110 minutes

Genre:  Horror

1978:  Arnie Cunningham (Gordon), a nerdy, unpopular teenager, spots a broken down, derelict 1958 Plymouth Fury for sale.  Despite the protestations of his best friend, Dennis (Stockwell), Arnie buys the car from a sinister old man, George LeBay (Blossoms), whose deceased brother was the original owner of the Plymouth and named it "Christine".  Arnie sets to work restoring the car at a local do-it-yourself garage, and begins to exhibit strange and disturbing personality changes.  When Arnie starts dating the popular new girl in school, Leigh (Paul), Christine begins to manifest a jealous, murderous personality of her own.

Producer Richard Kobritz snapped up the film rights to Stephen Kings 1983 novel Christine before it was even published, and it certainly looks like a sure fire winner on paper:  King, one of the world's most popular novelists; teenagers; cars; horror and rock 'n'roll.  Director John Carpenter, who had made the seminal horror film Halloween (1978), was attached to direct.  However Carpenter's previous film, The Thing (1982), had been staged by critics and was a commercial flop (even though it is now seen as one of the best films of it's type ever made), and he was not interested in Christine, commenting that he felt the book "was not very scary" but felt that he needed to do the film to help his career.  Certainly the film is a surprisingly bland, workmanlike affair.  In the novel, the car is possessed by the evil spirit of it's former owner, which begins to channel itself to Arnie, however the film opens with a short prologue set in the Detroit production line in 1957 where Christine manifests her hostile personality before she even rolls off the assembly line.  It's never explained in the film why the car has a mind of it's own.  Some of the performances are fairly bland, and some of the high school "teenagers" look as if they are well into their 30s.  In the novel much of the horror comes from Arnie's transformation, as he becomes increasingly paranoid, arrogant and angry, which would probably strike a chord with parents of teenagers, but the film centres the car.  However there are moments when the film works really well.  After Christine is trashed by Arnie's high school bullies, she resurrects herself in a hugely impressive sequence, which is one of the film's biggest set pieces, and when Christine is tracking down and murdering the bullies is really where John Carpenter comes into his own, particularly the scene where the car is on fire chasing after the leader of the gang (William Ostrander).  Roberts Blossom, who became known to horror fans for his lead in the cult film Deranged (1974) and is probably most familiar for his role in Home Alone (1990), is very good in a small role as the dirty, bleary-eyed George LeBay, and Robert Prosky is great as the bad-tempered, raspy-voiced, cigar chewing Darnell, owner of the garage where Arnie keeps Christine.  Harry Dean Stanton is wasted in a small role as the police detective who investigates the mysterious number of deaths surrounding Arnie and his car.  Kelly Preston appears in a small role as Dennis' cheerleader girlfriend.  Keith Gordon is good in the lead, but John Stockwell and Alexandra Paul give quite bland performances.  Also the red and white Plymouth herself, is an impressive looking vehicle, which manages to be genuinely sinister.  In the novel, Stephen King uses the lyrics of rock 'n' roll songs throughout, in the film the 1950s song playing on the car radio serve as Christine's language.  In the prologue she rolls off the production line, warning the world that she is "Bad to the Bone".  When she is alone with Arnie she plays "Pledging My Love" and "We Belong Together", and when she locks her doors to prevent Arnie rescuing a chocking Leigh in the front seat, she plays "Keep A-Knockin'".  While there is nothing particularly unmissable, there is certainly enough here to make recommend the film to horror fans.

Bad to the Bone: Christine

Death in Venice

 Year:  1971

Director: Luchino Visconti

Screenplay:  Luchino Visconti and Nicola Badalucco, based on the novella Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

Starring:  Dirk Bogarde, Björn Andrésen, Mark Burns, Romolo Valli, Nora Ricci, Marisa Berenson, Carole André, Silvana Mangano

Running Time:  130 minutes

Genre:  Drama

At the dawn of the 20th Century, ailing composer Gustav von Aschendbach (Bogarde), finding his physical and mental health suffering after a disastrous concert, travels to Venice for a quiet holiday to recuperate.  In a palatial hotel on the Lido, Aschenbach notices teenager Tadzio (Andrésen) and becomes increasingly obsessed with him.  Meanwhile, Aschenbach becomes aware of rumours of an outbreak of cholera sweeping Venice.

Based on a 1912 novella by German writer Thomas Mann, this is possibly one of the best known films of celebrated Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti.  British actor Dirk Bogarde, who previously worked with Visconti on The Damned (1969), plays fastidious German composer Gustav von Aschenbach, who is obsessed with the pursuit of ideal beauty.  Failing to find it in his music, he believes he has found it in the adolescent Tadzio.  The film is seen more or less through Aschenbach's eyes, and Tadzio is seen as an object of desire, and it is unclear as to whether Aschenbach's fixation on Tadzio is carnal or if he sees Tadzio as having the perfect beauty of a statue or painting.  The two never speak, Aschenbach stays watching Tadzio in hotel dining rooms, on the beach just outside the hotel, and takes to following Tadzio and his family through the winding streets of Venice.   The two exchange glances, but that is it.  However Aschenbach does at one point fantasise about warning Tadzio's mother, played by Silvana Mangano, of the outbreak in Venice.  The film's narrative in Venice is broken by flashback to Aschenbach's past and dreams.  Dirk Bogarde gives a great performance as Aschenbach, snapping at hotel staff and guards in a train station, discussing aesthetics with a friend, he becomes ultimately a pathetic and rather tragic figure, with his face painted white, lips painted red and hair dyed black to make himself look younger.  Bogarde manages to convey a lot without dialogue, depicting his yearning through longing looks.  The film looks beautiful with every frame carefully composed and features some beautiful images, complemented by a classical score, famously featuring Gustav Mahler's Third and Fifth Symphonies.  This is a slow, languid film, which is nevertheless surprisingly moving.  The story's premise of an adult's infatuation with an adolescent is, to put it mildly, uncomfortable and problematic, although it is a powerful work of art.  Aschenbach is a man who knows he is dying, who knows that his time has passed, alone and forgotten in the stately grandeur of a bygone age, in a place where even the air is making him feel increasingly sick, he sees in Tadzio the youth, life and beauty that he craves but that he can never have.

Björn Andrésen, who plays Tadzio, and who was 16 at the time of the film's release, has since criticised the film and the unwelcome and often predatory attention that he received during it's production and following it's release.  The Most Beautiful Boy in the World, a documentary about Andrésen, was released in 2019.

Dirk Bogarde in Death in Venice

Scum

Year:  1979

Director:  Alan Clarke

Screenplay:  Roy Minton

Starring:  Ray Winstone, Mick Ford, Julian Ford, John Blundell, Phil Daniels, Ray Burdis, Alrick Riley

Running Time:  97 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Three teenage boys arrive at a British "borstal" (a type of youth detention centre):  Carlin (Winstone) is being transferred for assaulting an officer at his previous borstal, Angel (Riley) has been convicted of stealing cars, and Davis (Ford) escaped from an open borstal.  Once in the prison Angel suffers racist abuse from both inmates and guards, and Davis, who is perceived as weak, is also victimised.  Meanwhile Carlin is targeted by the inmates, for his tough reputation, and the guards, who want revenge for the officer he hit.  In order to survive carlin embarks on a desperate, violent struggle to become the top dog, or "daddy", in the borstal.

Scum started out as a television movie made in 1977 for the BBC's groundbreaking Play for Today series.  However, the BBC got cold feet due to the violent content and pulled it form transmission.  Prolific TV director Alan Clarke, who directed the original TV play, and writer Roy Minton decided to remake Scum as a feature film, with most of the original cast of the play returning.  Scum was intended as an indictment of a failing prison system,  Despite the fact that borstal was supposed to be more about rehabilitation than punishment, there is very little attempt at rehabilitation shown, with the staff just as cruel and brutal as the prisoners (or "trainees" as they are called).  The borstal staff are almost all depicted as brutal thugs in suits, the elderly governor is portrayed as a hypocrite who insists that "there is no violence here" despite the fact that violence is almost constant in the institution.  Even the staff who deem to genuinely want to help their charges, such as the Matron (played by Jo Kendall), the film's only female character, don't have the resources, freedom or skill to do anything,  This is a very brutal film, the filmmakers took full advantage of the greater freedom a feature film allowed them to increase the level of violence.  There is a lot of racism and homophobia, frequent violent scenes, a brutal rape scene and a very bloody suicide.  The actors are disturbingly good, particularly Ray Winstone as the film's nominal hero, and Mick Ford as the intelligent, eccentric Archer, one of the film's few likeable characters, whose deadpan humour brings a little light into the darkness.  The film is shot in an almost documentary style, with the stark, white interiors and bleak wintery landscapes outside emphasising the hopelessness of the characters.  In the years since it's release, Scum has become something of a cult film in Britain.  It's worth watching, although I would advise to approach with caution.  It's a harrowing experience.

Ray Winstone in Scum

Scream 3

Year:  2000

Director:  Wes Craven

Screenplay:  Ehren Krueger, based on characters created by Kevin Williamson

Starring:  Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox Arquette, Patrick Dempsey, Jenny McCarthy, Parker Posey, Deon Richmond, Emily Mortimer, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Comedy, horror

Sidney Prescott (Campbell) is now living in self-imposed seclusion after surviving the killing sprees in her home town of Woodsboro and Windsor College.  Until, that is a new killer, once again wearing a Ghostface mask, starts picking off the cast of new horror movie Stab 3, based on Sidney's story.  Sidney has to travel to Hollywood and reunite with fellow survivors tabloid TV news journalist Gale Weathers (Cox Arquette) and former small town cop turned security guard Dewey Riley (Arquette) to uncover the new killer.

The original Scream (1996) was a true game changer in the horror field, which really revitalised the slasher film genre, at a time when it seemed to have had it's day.  Scream 2 (1997), while not as good as the original, was still a strong sequel.  However, Scream 3 was the point where the franchise dipped.  Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two films, bowed out of screenwriting duties to be replaced by Ehren Kruger, and Williamson's distinctive voice is certainly missed here.  Wes Craven returns as the film's director and once again stages some impressive action scenes, most notably a scene where Sidney is chased by the killer through a studio mockup of Woodsboro.  Due to concerns over the portrayal of violence in media following the 1999 Columbine Massacre, the level of violence is heavily toned down from the previous films, and the film leans more towards comedy than horror.  Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox Arquette are as engaging as ever, even if Courteney Cox Arquette (who was married to co-star David Arquette at the time) is saddled with a a truly dreadful hairstyle.  Also in the cast is genre veteran Lance Henriksen, popular model-turned-actress Jenny McCarthy, indie film veteran Parker Posey and an early role for Emily Mortimer.  The film also features cameos from legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes as Jay and Silent Bob, and in the film's funniest moments Carrie Fisher as a washed-up actress working in the studio archives, still bitter over the fact that the role of Princess Leia went to "the one that slept with George Lucas".  Another fun element is Parker Posey as the actress playing Gale Weathers teaming up with Courteney Cox Arquette as the real Gale Weathers, in order to get into character.  The film is not as funny or suspenseful as the previous films, but the Hollywood setting adds an interesting element, and the final act of the film does work, even if it feels more like a cross between Agatha Christie and film noir than a Scream film.  There is also a character who is a creepy movie producer who preys on young actresses and delivers the line "there are plenty of criminals in this town whose careers are flourishing", which has an added resonance in the post-Weinstein world.  Ironically, Harvey Weinstein was one of the film's executive producers.

David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Patrick Dempsey in Scream 3

  

Scream 2

Year:  1997

Director:  Wes Craven

Screenplay:  Kevin Williamson

Starring:  Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jamie Kennedy, Jerry O'Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Laurie Metcalfe, Jada Pinkett, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Liev Schreiber

Running Time:  120 minutes

Genre:  horror, comedy

 Two Windsor College students are brutally murdered at a preview of the new horror film Stab, based on the serial murders in the small town of Woodsboro.  Sidney Prescott (Campbell), one of the survivors of the Woodsboro murders, is also a student at Windsor and soon realises that she is once more being targeted by a ghost-mask wearing killer.  As the bodies and suspects mount up, it becomes clear that someone is trying to make a sequel to the previous killing spree.

Given the immense success of Scream (1996) a sequel was almost inevitable, and the filmmakers certainly didn't waste any time, with Scream 2 in cinemas only a year after the original.  Given the short time between the films it is surprising that Scream 2 is as good as it is.  While the original film both celebrated and commented on the tropes of traditional slasher horror films, this film does the same with horror sequels, including a scene which mirrors a famous sequence in the original where the film nerd Randy (played by Jamie Kennedy) outlines the rules of sequels.  Horror veteran Wes Craven returns to directing duties and orchestrates everything on a much bigger scale with some memorable set pieces, the opening sequence in the cinema, featuring Omar Epps and Jada Pinkett, is one of the highlights of the whole Scream series, and the ensemble cast, which features a number of future stars, as well as veterans such as David Warner, all give good performances.  Neve Campbell is good in the lead, and there is real connection between Courteney Cox and David Arquette, who were in a relationship at the time and later got married. The script by Kevin Williamson is witty, clever and full of pop-culture references.  This film also introduced film-within-a-film Stab, which would become a recurring feature in the Scream franchise, allowing the filmmakers to comment on and poke fun at the franchise itself.  the film inevitably lacks the freshness of the original.  There also some glaring plot holes, and a reliance on red-herring scares.  It is still a very good film, and definitely a superior sequel.

Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in Scream 2

My Friend Dahmer

 Year: 2017

Director:  Marc Meyers

Screenplay:  Marc Meyers, based on the graphic novel My Friend Dahmer by John "Derf" Backderf

Starring:  Ross Lynch, Anne Heche, Alex Wolff, Dallas Roberts, Tommy Nelson, Vincent Kartheiser

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Drama

1970s Ohio:  High school student Jeffrey Dahmer (Lynch) is a strange young man, with an unhealthy interest in dissecting animals.  Jeffrey and his younger brother David (Liam Koeth) have a difficult family life with their mentally ill mother (Heche) and a father (Roberts) who tries but fails to connect to Jeffrey.  Jeffrey's acting out at school soon draws the attention of a group of students, including aspiring artist John "Derf" Backderf (Wolff) who befriend him and persuade him to participate in a variety of pranks.  However as time goes on, Jeffrey begins to go down a far darker path.

Jeffrey Dahmer is one of the most notorious serial killers in American history who murdered at least 17 boys and young men before his arrest in 1991.  My Friend Dahmer is an unconventional true crime film, because it doesn't concern itself with any of his crimes.  It's based on an acclaimed 2012 graphic novel by cartoonist John "Derf' Backderf about his teenage friendship with Jeffrey Dahmer, and the bulk of the film concentrates on their senior year at high school in 1978.  The film is almost like a low-key domestic drama, about a troubled teenager, it really depends a lot on the audience's familiarity with Dahmer and his crimes for it's full effect.  The film has some very good performances, particularly from Ross Lynch, who gives a creepy performance as the dead eyed Dahmer.  The film humanises a monster, showing his troubled life and portraying him as a weird, unhappy teenager.  The film mentions the fact that Derf and his gang are arguably exploiting Dahmer by really using him for their entertainment, they use the term "doing a Dahmer" for his attention-seeking pranks such as impersonating a local interior designer with cerebral palsy, suddenly making loud noises, and sneaking into yearbook photos, among other things.  This is an effective, and chilling look at what makes a monster, that manages to feel empathetic and not exploitative.

       Ross Lynch as Jeffrey Dahmer in My Friend Dahmer

Wings of Desire

Year:  1987

Director:  Wim Wenders

Screenplay:  Wim Wenders, Peter Handke, Richard Reitinger

Starring:  Bruno Ganz, Solveig Dommartin, Otto Sander, Curt Bois, Peter Falk

Running Time:  127 minutes

Genre:  Fantasy

West Berlin:  Two angels, Damiel (Ganz) and Cassiel (Sander), watch over the affairs of humans.  The immortal angels are able to hear the thoughts of humans, however they are physically unable to intervene, or even interact with the physical world, and remain invisible to humans, although some can sense their presence.  Suffering from existential angst over his immortal existence set apart from the physical plane, Daniel falls in love with trapeze artist Marion (Dommartin) and decides to renounce his angelic existence for a mortal, human life.

In the years since it's release this philosophical romantic fantasy has become seen as one of the classics of world cinema.  While the film is long, slow, and arguably pretentious, it is intriguing, often funny and ultimately becomes profoundly moving.  The film is visually impressive, most of it is in sepia tinged black-and-white, with sequences in colour, and brief flashes of vintage newsreel footage.  The locations in Berlin range from the more familiar tourist areas such as the Victory Column where the angels frequently gather at the top to observe human life, to more run-down and industrial areas of the city, as well as the Berlin Wall. We also follow the stories of various characters that the angels observe, including an elderly poet, a suicidal young man, and American actor Peter Falk (playing himself) who is filming a war movie in Berlin.  The film has some fantastic performances from Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin in particular, and a warm, funny performance from Peter Falk.  The film also gives a glimpse of life in West Berlin in the years immediately before reunification, including a look at the underground rock clubs with a cameo from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.  It is really more a film about a city than about angels.  It is interesting how little traditionally angelic imagery is used, the angels have wings that appear occasionally, but usually appear as normal humans in long overcoats, and there are no references to Heaven or God.  The angels with their ability to pass over the city and hear thoughts provide an insight into the city and the people who live there.  Ultimately it becomes a celebration of the small, transient joys and pains of life, and the beauty of existence.  The film was followed by a sequel Faraway, So Close! (1993) and was remade in 1997 as City of Angels, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.  

Bruno Ganz in Wings of Desire

Rope

 Year:  1948

Director:  Alfred Hitchcock

Screenplay:  Hume Cronyn, based on the stage play Rope by Patrick Hamilton

Starring:  James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Joan Chandler, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Douglas Dick, Edith Evanson

Running Time:  80 minutes

Genre:  Thriller

New York City:  Two students, Brandon (Dall) and Philip (Granger), murder their friend David (Dick Hogan) for no other reason than the thrill of it.  After hiding the body in a large antique chest, they throw a party to which they invite David's family and friends, as well as their former teacher (Stewart).

Based on a 1928 stage play by Patrick Hamilton, which was itself loosely based on the notorious 1924 Leopold and Loeb murder case, this is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most experimental films.  Aside from the opening credit sequence, the entire film is set within the confines of Brandon and Philip's palatial New York apartment, and it is filmed to appear as if it is almost one continuous take.  The camera moves are impressive, although due to the fact that the cameras of the time could only hold a maximum of ten minutes worth of film, the camera frequently has to move close into the backs of people's jackets or furniture in order to hide the edit when the film had to be replaced.  This was the first of three films that James Stewart made for Hitchcock and he was critical of the film, commenting that the "really important thing being rehearsed here is the camera, not the actors," and stating much later that "it was worth trying... But it really didn't work."  Hitchcock himself dismissed the continuous take technique as "a stunt."  The film's main set of the apartment's living room is impressive, with a large window looking out over a steadily darkening New York City skyline, all of which was achieved in the studio.  While the film isn't entirely successful, it is an entertaining thriller.  The suspense comes not from David's fate, or the identity of the murderers, the film opens with the murder and the hiding of the body, but on when and how the "perfect murder" will unravel.  The film was very controversial on it's original release, possibly because of the strong homosexual subtext, the fact that Brandon and Philip are in a relationship is made pretty much as blatant as it could be in a mainstream movie in 1948.  For the most part the film manages to be more than just an innovative experiment, with sharp dialogue, strong performances, and the steadily building tension.  However, there are points where the technique overrides the content and your left admiring the camera work, rather than being involved in the story.

What a swell party: Farley Granger, James Stewart and John Dall in Rope

Prey

 Year:  2022

Director:  Dan Trachtenberg

Screenplay:  Patrick Aison, from a story by Patrick Aison and Dan Trachtenberg, based on characters by Jim Thomas and John Thomas

Starring:  Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Julian Black Antelope, Dane DiLiegro

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, action

The Great Plains of North America, 1719:  Naru (Midthunder) is a young Comanche woman, who is a hugely skilled healer and tracker, and dreams of becoming a great hunter like her brother, Tabbe (Beavers).  However, after seeing strange signs, and coming across strangely mutilated corpses of animals, Naru becomes convinced that there is something else out there, that is even more dangerous than the vicious cougars and bears, and the brutal fur trappers.  Soon the hunter becomes the hunted as Naru has to face a completely new type of Predator.

This is the fifth film in the Predator franchise, not counting the two Alien vs. Predator films which mix Predator with the Alien franchise.  The Predators are a race of aliens who come to Earth to hunt humans for sport.  This is a well made film, mixing panoramic visual beauty (in fact it is a real pity that the film debuted on streaming rather than in the cinema because it would look spectacular on the big screen).  Amber Midthunder is great in the lead as the calm but ferocious Naru, who uses her intelligence and skills, rather than just a strength against her opponents, and also turns the fact that she is almost always underestimated to her advantage.  The Predator itself is different to the ones previously seen on screen.  As in the other films, it has a cloaking device to make itself more or less invisible, and uses heat vision to track down it's prey, unlike previous versions, however, it's mask is made of bone, rather than metal, and it doesn't use an energy gun, using instead it's strength and bladed weapons.  As with previous Predators; it has it's own code of honour, not attacking those who it doesn't deem to be a threat.  The film takes it's time building up the characters and the world of the story, a world if kill or be killed, emphasised by repeated scenes of animals hunting and killing other animals.  It also takes it's time in building up Naru's world, exploring the customs and practices of the tribe.  The film is well made by Dan Trachtenberg, who previously made 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016).  While there are references to other films in the series, they don't feel forced, and there is no need to see any of the others to watch this.  it is a completely stand alone film.   While it doesn't feel very original, aside from the setting and largely indigenous cast, the story structure feels very similar to the first film, particularly towards the end, it is probably the best film in the series.

 Amber Midthunder in Prey

The Master

 Year:  2012

Director:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Screenplay:  Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring:  Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams

Running Time:  137 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Freddie Quell (Phoenix), a troubled, heavy drinking World War Two veteran, finds it difficult to adjust to postwar American society.  His drinking, coupled with his violent, erratic behaviour, causes him to be fired from several jobs, as he drifts across the States.  In San Francisco, Freddie meets Lancaster Dodd (Hoffman) the founder and leader of a movement known as "The Cause", which claims to help people using a confrontational technique called "Processing".  Freddie becomes fascinated by The Cause and the charismatic Dodd, and soon becomes a devoted follower.

This complex and often bleak drama, inspired by the early years of Scientology, is a powerful and sometimes disturbing piece of work.  Joaquin Phoenix gives one of his best performances as the violent alcoholic Freddie Quell.  The lecherous, mercurial Quell is often a deeply unlikeable character, but Phoenix gives us a glimpse of the humanity at his core.  Philip Seymour Hoffman is perfectly cast the charming, garrulous Dodd.  With Hoffman you can see how someone might fall for Dodd's line.  Dodd and Quell form a kind of father-son relationship, with Dodd frequently talking to him as if he's a small child, despite the fact that Hoffman was only seven years older than Phoenix.  There are moments, however, when Dodd's genial facade slips in brief explosions of rage.  Amy Adams plays Dodd's wife, Peggy, a quiet woman, who is a true believer in Dodd and The Cause, who is a mixture of charm, calm rage and steely determination.  There are also appearances from Laura Dean, Jesse Plemons and Rami Malek.  The film is far more than just a drama about a cult, it deals with America in the late 1940s early 1950s, the need to belong and the deep human will to believe in something.   Most of all it's about the strange connection between two men who are polar opposites and yet have a strange attachment.  Even when Freddie's bad behaviour alienates almost everyone around him, Dodd still insists in bringing him back into the fold.  The film's principal weakness is that it is quite meandering, it's one of those films where the story seems to have reached a conclusion, but there is still more to come.  However, this is a small criticism, since this is a truly great film.

Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Rami Malek in The Master
  

5x2

Year:  2004

Director:  François Ozon

Screenplay:  François Ozon and Emmanuèle Bernheim

Starring:  Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Stéphane Freiss

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Drama

Over the course of five episodes, the film tells the story of a married couple in reverse.  It opens with Marion (Tedeschi) and Gilles (Freiss) in a lawyer's office finalising their divorce, and then moves back to  tense dinner with Gilles' brother (Antoine Chappey) and his partner (Marc Ruchmann),   the birth of Marion and Gilles' son, their wedding and concluding with their meeting in an idyllic Spanish seaside resort.  

This French film, the title of which is Five Times Two in English, is a dark drama which uses a reverse chronology to chart the gradual disintegration of a marriage.  Going from the acrimonious divorce, and a shocking scene where Gilles sexually assaults Marion, to their initial holiday romance.  With the benefit of hindsight we can see how things go wrong, and where the cracks form in the relationship.    The reverse structure had been used in a couple of other films that came out in the early 2000s, most notably the thriller Memento (2000) and the controversial Irréversible (2002), but Ozon's stated inspiration was the 1986 Australian TV movie Two Friends, directed by Jane Campion, that depicted the end of a friendship in reverse.  Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss are perfectly cast as the couple.  Ozone directs with style and the script is clever and witty.  There is s lot to admire in the film, however I would proceed with caution, it's very bleak.  For one thing this is arguably one of the least romantic films ever made.  Every couple in the film is miserable and/or doomed.  It's not a film for Date Night.  If you are single however, this might make you feel a bit better about it.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Stéphane Freiss in 5x2

The Great Outdoors

 Year:  1988

Director:  Howard Deutch

Screenplay:  John Hughes

Starring:  Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Stephanie Faracy, Annette Bening

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Comedy

Chicago resident Chester "Chet" Ripley (Candy), his wife Connie (Faracy) and their two sons are spending their summer at a bucolic lake resort.  However, their holiday takes a turn for the worse when Connie's sister Kate Craig (Bening) arrives uninvited with her obnoxious investment broker husband Roman (Aykroyd) and their twin daughters.  Soon a peaceful lakeside vacation turns into a catalogue of misadventures and disasters.

This is a moderately funny family comedy.  John Candy plays the gentle Chicagoan who just wants a peaceful holiday for some family bonding and Dan Aykroyd is well-cast as his annoying yuppie brother in law.  Stephanie Faracy and Annette Bening, in her film debut, really don't have much to do as the supportive wives and mothers.  Scripted by John Hughes, who became something of a celebrity in the 1980s, with scripts including National Lampoon's Vacation (1983), Pretty in Pink (1986) and Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), as well as writing and directing The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) and the John Candy starring Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987).  The film feels like a watered-down Vacation film with the same episodic structure moving from comic set-piece to comic set-piece, before a heart-warming conclusion.  None of the cast has anything to stretch themselves, and there are moments where the film looks surprisingly cheap, like a scene where they are fishing at dawn and the lake is very clearly a stage set.  However there are some very funny and memorable scenes, such as Candy's disastrous trip on water skis, and a scene where Roman persuades Chet to take the "Old 96" challenge in a local restaurant and eat a 96 pound steak.  From Candy's reaction when the crazed-looking chef in a blood stained apron sets down the huge slab of meat in front of him and his mute pleading and suffering as he is forced to finish this mass of food, is a wonderful piece of silent comic acting.  By the way, there is a restaurant in California that does serve an "Old 96" in tribute to this movie.  It's recommended for between four to six people.  One of the funniest things in the film are the racoons that periodically try and get inside the tourist's rubbish bins, and talk in their own chittering language, which is subtitled.  The romantic sub-plot between Chet's teenage son Buck (Chris Young) and local girl Cammie (Lucy Deakins) is done well and is actually quite moving, but there is not enough of it for it not to feel like it was just shoe-horned in at the last minute.  Director Howard Deutch, who previously worked with Hughes on Pretty in Pink, does a serviceable job.  It's not a great film, but it is  enjoyable enough, and there are enough laughs to make it an entertaining diversion.

John Candy and Dan Aykroyd in The Great Outdoors
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