DEATH WATCH
(1980)
Dir - Bertrand Tavernier
Overall: GOOD
Shot primarily in Scotland with a recognizable, international cast, (Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, Max von Sydow, and French actress Romy Schneider in one of her last screen performances before committing suicide two years later), Death Watch, (Le mort en direct), is Bertrand Tavernier's bleak yet humanizing adaptation of David G. Compton's novel The Unsleeping Eye. It bares little to no hallmarks of the conventional horror or even thriller genre, but its themes of voyeurism and the objectification of women are quite disturbing without becoming unpleasantly overbearing. Even the characters that seem one-dimensionally callous are not all together unsympathetic and the same goes for Schneider as the more obvious victim. All of this gives the entire film a rather gray, emotionally ambiguous pallet to work off of, one that spends no time spoon-feeding the audience. As a challenging, somewhat dystopian bit of science fiction then, its lack of clear-cut fulfillment, (as well as its often imposing length), may sit uncomfortable with some. It is still an impressively done work though, most likely worthy of repeat views to grasp more fully.
(1981)
Dir - Andrzej Żuławski
Overall: GOOD
The only English-speaking film from Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski, Possession can be seen as one of the most strangely intense horror movies ever made about a marriage coming to an end. Written by Żuławski and American novelist Frederic Tuten, shot in West Germany, and precisely inspired by the director's recent divorce from actress Malgorzata Braunek, the film morphs into an increasingly disturbing and increasingly strange exaggeration of the guilt, confusion, and obsessive desperation felt and then materialized by a crippling marital partnership. Almost laughable at times in its over the top abstractness, the fact that it is all played incredibly straight as an arthouse movie may be completely lacking in intended humor, but it also makes for a dizzying, strange tone. It is not just the absurdly horrific events that transpire, but the performances are all levels of unorthodox. Every character regularly seems in a wide-eyed daze as they compulsively cannot sit still, asking and answering horribly upsetting questions at a breakneck pace. While Sam Neil is quite excellent, it is really Isabelle Adjani who deserves top honors for her recklessly unhinged performance of a violently befuddled adulteress, one of the best such portrayals in screen history really.
(1988)
Dir - John Hough
Overall: MEH
This Canadian/British co-production by John Hough's is a schlocky, somewhat lame-brained mess. Rather pedestrian in concept, American Gothic is another in the "held against their will by an evil Bible-quoting family" line of horror films and it does nothing to elevate the already stale sub-genre. Following a predictable structure up until it embraces its tongue-in-cheek silliness by going with a more implausible final act, one's only chance of enjoyment is to sit back and find unintentionally amusing attributes. To be fair, the movie has a generous amount of them. As the elderly couple who does not believe in non-married folk sleeping in the same bed and still think the Charleston dance is what the kids are into these days, Rod Steiger and Yvonne De Carlo ham it up to the tilt and give funny enough "Eh, it's a paycheck" performances. Their senior citizen aged children who behave like eight-year olds are less creepy and more just dumb and unsympathetic. Same goes for the dipshit "normal" characters who find themselves at the mercy of the textbook disturbing family, though at least one of them has a horrific mullet that deserves a standing ovation of its own. Nothing in the film is clever, including all of the kills which are just kind of brutal and random. An easy pass all around.
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