(1982)
Dir - Paul Schrader
Overall: MEH
There are a number of good ingredients to Paul Schrader's remake of Cat People and the director does not fudge up his serious, erotic tone. Still, the film is a mess. The first obstacle not to be overcome is Alan Ormsby's script. It takes way, way too long to get going and Schrader is left with no choice but to let the pace drag considerably. At just shy of two hours long, you would think this would be ample enough time to explore the mystical, feline mythology and make Natasha Kinski's inevitable, willing werecat transformation more compelling. Instead, everything is clumsily explained if it is explained at all and most of the characters come off as half-baked. Also, the refilming of iconic sequences from the original seems quite forced and out of place, more than ever with the just as random and illogical pool scene. The cast is solid though, particular Kinski and Malcom McDowell as her creepy yet underwritten brother. Also, Giorgio Moroder's score is quite captivating, helped even more by David Bowie's vocal prowess on the title song. Considering that the original Cat People is an overrated and flawed movie to begin with, this version is not so much a sacrilege as much as just another botched attempt at a similar enough story.
PUMPKINHEAD
(1988)
Dir - Stan Winston
Overall: GOOD
It stands to reason that a film with Stan Winston behind the lens would first and foremost look pretty damn good at least so in that respect, Pumpkinhead is a success. Serving as the legendary special effects artist's directorial debut, the title monster gets plenty of screen time and looks superb, but Winston also pulls no punches with the textbook, horror scenery. There is oodles of fog, an old, gross hag, orange candlelit cabins, woods full of dead trees, a burned down church, barren cemeteries, over the top death scenes, and gore that would unmistakably qualify the film as a horror one and nothing else. On that note though, Winston also indulges in more obnoxious genre cliches like countless jump scares, psych-outs, and some poorly-written secondary characters that are only there to get brutally murdered to death. As opposed to other such horror movies that become too obnoxious to appreciate due to some of their laziness, Pumpkinhead mostly gets a pass. One could argue that the story is far too derivative of a whole lot that came before it, but still, it is mostly a solid offering with the simple, fairytale premise being appropriately creepy and also one that Winston manages to move along at a satisfactory enough pace.
(1988)
Dir - Stan Winston
Overall: GOOD
It stands to reason that a film with Stan Winston behind the lens would first and foremost look pretty damn good at least so in that respect, Pumpkinhead is a success. Serving as the legendary special effects artist's directorial debut, the title monster gets plenty of screen time and looks superb, but Winston also pulls no punches with the textbook, horror scenery. There is oodles of fog, an old, gross hag, orange candlelit cabins, woods full of dead trees, a burned down church, barren cemeteries, over the top death scenes, and gore that would unmistakably qualify the film as a horror one and nothing else. On that note though, Winston also indulges in more obnoxious genre cliches like countless jump scares, psych-outs, and some poorly-written secondary characters that are only there to get brutally murdered to death. As opposed to other such horror movies that become too obnoxious to appreciate due to some of their laziness, Pumpkinhead mostly gets a pass. One could argue that the story is far too derivative of a whole lot that came before it, but still, it is mostly a solid offering with the simple, fairytale premise being appropriately creepy and also one that Winston manages to move along at a satisfactory enough pace.
(1989)
Dir - Jerry London
Overall: MEH
This USA Network adaptation of Jim Flanagan's novel The Haunting of Sarah Hardy plays by the usual rules where a woman is undergoing a psychological strain while various people around her are either engaging in gaslighting or made to look like red herrings who are involved in dubious manipulation. One of a career's worth of television movies from director Jerry London and featuring another small screen mainstay Sela Ward in the lead, it is a mystery in part, yet there really is no mystery since the culprits get unmasked just shy of an hour in and it is a groan-worthy and lazy reveal that anyone even half paying attention to could see coming. That leaves a third act with one-dimensional characters behaving one-dimensionally and all previous supernatural atmosphere bypassed for just another game of spousal backstabbing over lots of money. Everyone is attractive and says their lines correctly, the plotting is convenient instead of plausible, and it plays out like a longer and neutered Tales from the Crypt episode with zero violence. Also, the only sexiness stems from Ward in a nighty and her and square-jawed pretty boy Michael Woods engaging in some post-marital hanky panky with the bed sheets covering their lewd body parts.
No comments:
Post a Comment