(1972)
Dir - Andrzej Żuławski
Overall: MEH
This politically conscious, nasty art film Diabel, (The Devil), from Andrzej Żuławski was his second overall and helped set the template for excited characterizations from his cast as well as overt violence and sexual deviance. With nigh an exception, every character seems to uncontrollably contort their body in extravagant spasms and with the whole thing beginning with the, (probably), title character freeing the main protagonist from a completely overrun insane asylum during the 18th century, Prussian invasion of Poland, it could be logically assumed that the entire movie is an intentionally bewildering allegory of some sort. If not, then it is just a bunch of miserable, awful set pieces meant only to make you loathe humanity and be uncomfortable, (Lars von Trier probably saw this and got such an idea for his entire career). There are certainly movies more strange and many others more unwholesome, but the lengthy running time and deliberate incoherence does indeed make it all a steady bummer to sit through after awhile. Żuławski shoots much of it in frantic, hand-held, long takes that while impressive, likewise serve their purpose to make the viewer rather distressed in their seat. The bleak cinematography does a similar trick that if anything else, also makes the harsh tone thoroughly consistent.
(1974)
Dir - Bob Clark
Overall: MEH
POV shots, a cat and mouse sensibility, and the picking off of young, attractive college girls are some of the more future-frequented elements in Bob Clark's seminal Black Christmas that would occasionally be done better but usually far, far, far worse in the coming decades. Clark was already an established horror maestro with Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things and Deathdream directly proceeding this and the future Porky's and A Christmas Story director infused a liberal amount of humor to A. Roy Moore's script, which works in some instances while not in others. Margot Kidder and Marian Waldman make excellent drunks, but the "fellatio" gag happens two times too many and goes on for too long in both instances. Olivia Hussey is hit or miss as the final girl as some of her dialog and delivery steps too far into high school play territory, but the ambiguous ending and Carl Zitter's strange, ambient piano banging "music" are excellent touches. By being a slasher film though, Black Christmas does too many things insultingly wrong. If the screaming calls are coming from inside of the house, (and at least once happening when a loud murder is actually taking place), how in the fuck would the person on the other line not notice it is inside the house? Nobody is going to check the attic at the end even when you can see a fucking dead body through the window from outside? Also Hussey's character does the textbook, excruciatingly aggravating thing of not getting the fuck out of harm's way when every shred of conceivable logic would make anybody do so. Oh, and one of the all time worst horror cliches of cops not taking anybody seriously rears its ugly head as well, though at least that latter detail is poked fun at within the film. Still, putting it there in the first place does everything to take you out of the experience, as so many of these slasher faux pas commonly do. Also the movie is honestly pretty boring since it just revolves around waiting for the phone to ring to hear some incomprehensible gibberish and screaming.
(1978)
Dir - Colin Eggleston
Overall: GREAT
One may find Colin Eggleston's first non-softcore porno movie Long Weekend to be a bit of blatantly on-the-nose silliness. You may also be caught up in what does NOT happen to the point of being genuinely captivated. From the get go, the two person cast are as unlikable as you get, deliberately so. Not only are they in a clearly dysfunctional relationship with each other, both switching wildly from being aggressively whimsical to almost psychotically angry and distant with each other, but their disregard for all things nature is given frequent examples. They haphazardly chop down trees for no reason, run over animals, shoot off ammunition into the wilderness, spray pesticide to the point of murdering any organic lifeform within miles, smash eagle eggs, and leave garbage and food lying around. Yet what begins to transpire all around them is quite gradual to the point where something fantastical is clearly at play, but it is given no specifics at any point. Eggleston and first time non-TV screenwriter Everett De Roche take a lot of opportunities to insinuate that this will be another out of countless "people get murdered by a bunch of creepy locals while on vacation" movies so when it does not go that route, an applause at the very least is in order. Even as a nature horror film, it also forgoes just having a giant animal or something ala Jaws spring up and reek havoc so in effect, it plays a much more creepy, bewildering game. With a more fractured tone or less visceral performances from its two leads, Long Weekend could easily be a failure but instead it is one of the more refreshing tweaks to the horror film out there.
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