(1981)
Dir - Walerian Borowczyk
Overall: MEH
Known erotic filmmaker Walerian Borowczyk's unintentionally goofy adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson's tirelessly retreaded The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a highly flawed and aggravating one. Some scenes are effectively disturbing, moody, or technically impressive, (such as the eerie opening, some twisted violence, and Udo Kier's one-shot transformation into another actor), but often they are just as easily undone by ridiculous acting, boring and pretentious dialog, and distracting cinematography. Much of the movie, (particularly the last act), is filmed by hand-held cameras in increasingly poor lighting and while it seems like it might produce some interesting, voyeuristic results at first, it just becomes a pain in the ass to watch before too long. The bigger problem though is how laughably and perhaps accidentally the tones clash throughout. It would be one thing if Dr. Jekyll was just running amok as Mr. Hyde and willingly giving him more free reign to terrorize his house guests, but it is another when so many other characters without an excuse succumb to random bursts of brutality as well, further delighting in just as much evil shenanigans. All the while, no one in the crew turned enough lights on to even see anything. The overtly visceral and bizarre finale is probably fitting, but its sloppy course to get there is hard to jump on board with.
(1982)
Dir - Tony Williams
Overall: MEH
The second and last non-documentary full-length from New Zealander Tony Williams is an annoying one that drops the ball in some places while being rather inventive in others. Next of Kin plays with its audience in more ways than just the method in which it utilizes vague haunted house cliches and red herrings for its mystery. It is detrimental that the film is tremendously boring and moves at such a crawl, removing what impact would be had by the well-photographed and stylish, macabre sequences. Taken out of context, several scenes are impressively done, including a corpse being found and removed from a bathtub, plus the lead protagonist running away from her pursuer in slow motion while the soundtrack disturbingly blares and distorts her screams. Yet in the framework of the mediocre at best story and how lackadaisically paced it is, it becomes troublesome to stay even remotely invested enough to notice the good bits. This is a common occurrence unfortunately for many non-pandering horror films that try and fail to successfully break the mold and do something unique with the genre. Next of Kin overstays its welcome in this respect while not providing an interesting enough footing to build on.
(1985)
Dir - Jacek Koprowicz
Overall: MEH
While certainly moody enough, Medium is a bit too impenetrable to get under one's skin. A period piece set during 1933 in the German-occupied city of Sopot, it was the debut from Polish filmmaker Jacek Koprowicz and uses an interesting though aggravatingly unexplained premise revolving around psychic abilities, immortality, and mind control. There are a number of reveals that would have been pretty creepy had Koprowicz structured his story in a more fleshed-out way. Instead, we are thrust head-first into the confusing goings-ons from the very beginning, sp the viewer's brains are trying to play catch-up to all pf the information that we are consistently not given. Medium simply goes too far in this regard, losing its audience early on and not delivering a satisfying enough pay-off, even in a mystifying, ambiguous sense. It just seems underwritten instead. Most of the characters are so poorly introduced that it is difficult to decipher what their motivation is, whether it is deliberate or manipulated by the movie's unseen title-villain. If this was intentional, then it makes the narrative all the more sloppy and unforgiving. The cinematography and sound design are excellent, but they definitely would have suited a more solid overall film.
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