Jamie Lee Curtis sticks out a thumb and leaves virginal Laurie Strode (Halloween) behind, casually sleeping with the middle-aged man who picks her up just outside the coastal California town of Antonio Bay. Here, as Elizabeth Solley, she finds herself in the middle of a ghostly mess involving the passengers of a ship that was lured onto nearby rocks a hundred years ago; the ship sank, the passengers drowned, and now they're pissed off and looking for revenge. Adrienne Barbeau plays a DJ, high up in her lighthouse radio station, with a bird's eye view of the strange glowing fog that conceals the wronged killers. Hal Holbrook is a priest who uncovers their hidden agenda. None of which is particularly interesting or scary or, believe it or not, in any way atmospheric. Carpenter's direction is strictly by the script, all plot and no poetry. With a stronger story, this might have worked, but this one is little more than a daisy chain linking one cliche to another. With an ending that manages to be not only trite but completely illogical. Remade, for some reason, in 2005.
++1/2
Jamie Lee Curtis sticks out a thumb and leaves virginal Laurie Strode (Halloween) behind, casually sleeping with the middle-aged man who picks her up just outside the coastal California town of Antonio Bay. Here, as Elizabeth Solley, she finds herself in the middle of a ghostly mess involving the passengers of a ship that was lured onto nearby rocks a hundred years ago; the ship sank, the passengers drowned, and now they're pissed off and looking for revenge. Adrienne Barbeau plays a DJ, high up in her lighthouse radio station, with a bird's eye view of the strange glowing fog that conceals the wronged killers. Hal Holbrook is a priest who uncovers their hidden agenda. None of which is particularly interesting or scary or, believe it or not, in any way atmospheric. Carpenter's direction is strictly by the script, all plot and no poetry. With a stronger story, this might have worked, but this one is little more than a daisy chain linking one cliche to another. With an ending that manages to be not only trite but completely illogical. Remade, for some reason, in 2005.
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+++ Psychological horror novel in which a young mother is forced to confront a shattering reality: that her 8-year-old daughter is a murderous sociopath. That this is the mother's story and not the child's demonstrates March's understanding of the little girl's condition: she herself is quite uncomplicated, having no conscience or sense of morality to shade her personality. It is the mother -- who gradually learns more than she could ever have wanted to know about the girl's condition -- who faces the hard, frightening decisions about what to do with her. It's a dark premise, but one that March executes faithfully and, for the most part, with psychological insight. It is, however, all a bit detached, even dry at times, which might save it from the excesses another author might have imposed upon it, but which also keeps it from burrowing as deeply into the limbic system of our brains, where reside our emotions and our memory, as it might have with a somewhat more emotive approach. (Not that the book is without humor: one character -- a rough, uneducated caretaker -- unconsciously develops the hots for this little girl who is every bit as anti-social as he is, yet discovers, in the end, that she is far more practical about it than he could ever be.) Adapted three times, first as a Broadway play the same year as publication, then as a film in 1956 -- based on the play and the book -- and finally as a TV movie in 1985. ++ Three-hundred-pound lawyer uses his connections to avoid criminal charges for the vehicular death of a gypsy woman, prompting the woman's father to take matters into his own hands -- by cursing the lawyer to become thinner each day until the weight loss kills him. Good idea (believe it or not) gets hopelessly old-fashioned 1950's horror comic book treatment, resulting in a juvenile and unsatisfying might-have-been, not helped in the least by the de rigueur twist ending. On the plus side, Kari Wuhrer, on the few occasions when she isn't snarling or spitting, certainly photographs well. Based on one of Stephen King's Richard Bachman books. (It's tempting to say this film is about as bright as the poster for it. The curse -- losing weight -- has nothing whatever to do with the crime -- vehicular manslaughter. What the copywriter meant to say was, "Let the curse fit the criminal.") ++1/2 French-Italian compendium of three short films, all based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Metzengerstein (dir. Roger Vadim) Dissolute countess mistakenly causes the death of her infuriatingly sanguine cousin, then forms inseparable bond with a wild horse, at one point embarrassingly serenading it with a flute. And that's about it. Watchable only for its 60s-style debauchery and Jane Fonda's many sexy costumes. William Wilson (dir. Louis Malle) Incorrigible boy grows into adult scoundrel, thwarted at every stage by an honorable doppelganger. Notable for the rogue's nefarious schemes, including a long card game with a dark-haired Brigitte Bardot that ends -- or almost -- with her being whipped with a riding crop. Toby Dammit (dir. Federico Fellini) The standout here (based on "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"), though not for its satirical story of an alcoholic English actor being fêted in Rome (he is there to film the world's "first Catholic Western"); rather for the actor's waking nightmare of a young girl with a big white ball, who leads him at breakneck speed, in a Ferrari, through the narrow streets of Rome toward a violent, masterfully edited climax. The Stories & The Adaptations "Metzengerstein" - Young baron reaps the vengeance of his hated neighbor in the form of a fabulous horse with which he becomes fascinated. Not one of the author's better stories (unlike the other two represented here), but enjoyable enough, particularly for the clever way in which Poe fulfills his prophecy. Vadim's adaptation, allowing for the substitution of a woman for the count, has many surface similarities with the story; however, that substitution leaves Vadim free to alter the characters' motivations beyond all recognition, which, of course, he (rather dully) proceeds to do. "William Wilson" - Well-told tale of mystery and suspense as a dissolute man flees from city to city to escape his doppelganger, discovering too late the true nature of the other man’s existence. In other words, a substantial match for Malle's adaptation -- though, again, where Poe showed us a man cheated at cards, Malle gives us a woman (in this case, merely altering the subtext). Otherwise, a reasonable, if somewhat more literal, version of the story. "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" (Toby Dammit) - One of Poe's humorous tales, this one tells the story of a man whose inveterate use of a particular gambling phrase ultimately gets him into serious trouble. And if that doesn't sound a bit like Fellini's "adaptation," you read the description correctly: this short film is the only one of the three to state outright that it is a loose adaptation. So loose, in fact, that if it weren't for its satirical tone, the physical presence of Evil, and an important element of the ending, it would be unrecognizable. "'Toby Dammit,' the first new Fellini to be seen here since 'Juliet of the Spirits' in 1965, is marvelous: a short movie but a major one." - Vincent Canby, The New York Times, September 4, 1969 *** Jilted paleontologist joins team hunting overgrown crocodile at a remote lake in Maine. Borrows freely (albeit knowingly) from other films (Jaws, particularly, of course) and might have been just another ripoff, but this surprisingly entertaining monster movie gets major boost from game cast and fun script (by David E. Kelley) that keeps its eye on audiences rather than critics. Bridget Fonda is joined by Bill Pullman as a soft-spoken fish and game warden, Brendan Gleeson as a small-town sheriff, and Oliver Platt as an eccentric millionaire who believes crocs are divine. Followed by three sequels, all of which were made for TV. "Instead of rooting for Pullman and Fonda, we end up praying that the crocodile is hungry enough to put them out of their misery." - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly, July 16, 1999 "[A]t 83 minutes, this short-attention-span cinema seems more geared to the braces and training bra set than to those who actually pay for tickets with their own money and have driver's licenses." - Michael O'Sullivan, The Washington Post, July 16, 1999 ***** Superb horror novel about a young woman who becomes convinced that her unborn child has been targeted by a coven of witches for sacrifice to the Devil. With suspense so tightly wound it's funny, yet sublimely subtle and wittily observed. The characters are sharply drawn and believable throughout -- and yes that includes the surprising ending. Adapted first by Roman Polanski for his classic 1968 film, then as a two-part miniseries in 2014. "Not since the late Shirley Jackson has there been quite this kind of spellbinder" - Kirkus Reviews, April 13th, 1967 **** Fascinating, exceedingly low-key noir horror film about a young woman (Kim Hunter) whose search for her missing sister leads her to an odd cult of satanists in Greenwich Village. From the producer (Val Lewton) and writer (DeWitt Bodeen) of Cat People and Curse of the Cat People, so expect the off-beat. The sister (Jean Brooks) says things like, “I’ve always wanted to die.” This haunting, depressing film is not recommended for the clinically depressed. "[T]otally unbelievable hocus-pocus about a strange Greenwich Village coterie." - Variety, December 31, 1942 **** Liberated woman suspects foul play after moving to Connecticut town where nearly all her peers are or are becoming strangely contented housewives. And, she realizes, she's next. Short, subtle, and tightly plotted horror thriller is also a not-entirely-one-sided satire of American gender roles. The prescient blurb for the first edition mentions "Stepford Wife" as a potential cultural buzzword. Filmed twice, seriously in 1975, farcically in 2004. ** Woman (Barbara Hershey) with three kids is assaulted and raped by discarnate entity -- a "spectral rapist" -- and seeks help from a psychiatrist, who thinks she's mentally ill, and paranormal investigators, who believe they've hit the motherlode of psychic phenomena. Based on the book by Frank De Felitta which in turn was based on a "true story," the case of Doris Bither. De Felitta, who also wrote the screenplay for this film, sides with the investigators (the attacks happen, they're real), in the process marginalizing the movie's best character, the psychiatrist, played by Ron Silver. Blueprint adaptation squeezes in as much of the novel as it can, but is poorly paced, somewhat monotonous, and, ultimately, not particularly scary. (Martin Scorcese, however, puts it at #4 on his list of the eleven "scariest films of all time.") ** Good Ray Harryhausen stop-motion special effects fail to generate much excitement in film with overwrought premise of giant octopus attacking San Francisco. Includes a wonderful scene of a lady scientist (Faith Domergue) berating a Navy Commander (Kenneth Tobey) for not appreciating her value in the field, whereupon the monster appears and she screams like a girl. Tries to be both "documentary" and monster movie and ends up as merely impersonal. Tobey, a bright spot in 1951's The Thing From Another World, tries hard, but is undercut by a script that has him sharing time -- time this movie hasn't got -- with a rival for the lady's affections. For stop-motion fans only. |
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