(1971)
Dir - Richard Fleischer
Overall: GOOD
Richard Fleischer, (The Vikings, Soylent Green, Red Sonja), deserves nearly all of the props for what really works in See No Evil. The premise of a blind woman under attack has been done a bundle of times, but Fleischer in utilizing a Hitchcockian gimmick to never reveal the killer's face until the last scene, (keeping both us and Mia Farrow's hapless damsel equally in the dark), makes for an innumerable number of effectively tense scenes. The fact that most of these instances play out with no dramatic music underneath them also incredibly helps. On that end though, the score when it does arrive succumbs to that near ruinous trait to be mood killing as it is much too lovely and swelling to fit the movie it is in. Mia Farrow does not come off as cinema's most convincing blind woman as she noticeably makes eye contact with speaking characters a handful of times. There are also two scenes that are not intended to be hilarious but rather are when she slips wildly and wide-eyed down a mud hill and gets knocked off her horse by a tree branch which resembles something right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. These are very insignificant complains though as once the movie hits the half hour mark, the majority of what follows is pretty heart-racing stuff.
(1972)
Dir - Peter Sasdy
Overall: GOOD
One of the most lauded horror works within the television medium, The Stone Tapes debuted on Christmas Day, 1972 on BBC Two as a standalone part of its annual Christmas ghost story tradition. Director Peter Sasdy recently had some Hammer productions under his belt, (Taste the Blood of Dracula, Countess Dracula, and Hands of the Ripper), and writer Nigel Kneale was already known as one of the most prolific screenwriters in England, most famously for originating the Quartermass series. As it holds up all these decades later, this is still pretty solid. The cast is recognizable from other horror genre works, Doctor Who episodes, and even by one of them, (Jane Asher), being Paul McCartney's old love interest. Though it is expertly performed, delivered very straight from Sasdy's directorial chair, and has a very unmelodic and adequate score, Kneale's unnerving and approximately realistic story itself is the star attraction. Few horror works would influence actual science, but The Stone Tapes indeed has a theory named after it in the paranormal research community, pertaining to the play's premise of ghosts leaving behind recordings within a natural environment. Rather impressive.
(1973)
Dir - Don Sharp
Overall: GOOD
Both silly and fun in equal amounts, Psychomania , (also known more appropriately as The Death Wheelers), is one of those movies where its absurdity has everything to do with its charm. Though it has a distinguished enough cast, (with George Sanders no less in his last film role), and director Don Sharp is credited with some straight-laced Hammer outings, Psychomania is a ludicrous, often exploitative movie that uses its nuttiness to its advantage. There are one or two genuinely chilling scenes, (the one involving the weird room and the mirror for the win), but most of the time it is humorous to watch the main motorcycle gang partake of many outrageous, leisurely activities. The film's premise is as outlandish as they come, but there are so many odd details that you can not only forgive but actually kind of admire the randomness of many of them. One moment involving a guy getting buried in a hole while he sits perfectly erect on his motorcycle while his buddy sings a jaw-droppingly terrible hippy song about how rebellious he was was so asinine it should derail the whole movie. Instead, it proved rather memorable, be it in a way most likely not intended. To be clear though, most of the enjoyment to be found here is meant to be found. It is a wonderfully wacky addition to anyone's British horror viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment