(1971)
Dir - John D. Hancock
Overall: GOOD
The debut from American filmmaker John D. Hancock with the misleadingly near-schlocky title of Let's Scare Jessica to Death is a patchy yet interesting psychological horror work. The project was originally offered to Hancock as a satirical B-movie called It Drinks Hippie Blood, but the director insisted on making it a legit, solemn affair and retained very little from that initial script. Using a small cast on a tight budget and filmed in central Connecticut, the end product has some amateurish shortcomings such as unconvincing improvisational dialog, jumpy editing, and a bit of a flimsily unfocused story. It overcomes most of these issues with an excellent, committed performance from Zohra Lampert as the mentally ill title character fighting for her sanity in an isolated farmhouse, a consistently eerie tone, and some memorably hair-raising set pieces. Taking all of the components as a whole, it is definitely messy, but there is an understated, imaginative quality to it that increases as it goes on. The film may get more frustratingly confusing as it goes on as well, but there is enough here to interest fans of more unorthodox, subdued, though-provoking horror all the same.
(1975)
Dir - Steven Spielberg
Overall: GOOD
One of the most wildly profitable and influential horror-esque films ever made, Steven Spielberg's seminal Jaws may not have the same visceral impact it did decades ago, but it is still as enjoyable as anything from arguably the medium's most famous director. Decades after its commercial and artistic influence has long become the stuff of Hollywood legend, watching it now is more like either a celebration in nostalgia or a film history lesson. Neither of these things are unfortunate, but a couple jump scares notwithstanding, John William's iconic music accompanying doomed tourists on a beach, the quintessential idiot mayor, Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss arguing shark theories, and the inevitable shots of Bruce the Great White are less heart-racing and more sentimentally pleasing. As a horror film, it has some of the necessary goods, but a relatively young Spielberg would mount even more successfully tense scenes in Jurassic Park eighteen years later and that one qualifies as even less as a horror film in most movie-goers eyes. Genre labels aside, Jaws is still as entertaining as they come and practically essential viewing for fully appreciating the very first recognized financial blockbuster as well as probably the best nature horror film ever made.
AUDREY ROSE
(1977)
Dir - Robert Wise
Overall: MEH
Written by author and occasional director Frank De Felitta, (and based off of his novel of the same name), Audrey Rose also doubles as the last proper horror movie that Robert Wise ever directed. While there may be an interesting idea lurking here about reincarnation veiled through an Exorcist-esque set up of an eleven year old girl "possessed", there are some major issues at play. Most prominently of all, De Felitta's wordy script asks way too much of the viewer. How Anthony Hopkins' character is even given the time of day by the family whose daughter he is obsessing over is illogical enough. Yet when the concept of reincarnation becomes the subject of a high profile criminal trial, it is just preposterous from there and any attempts to take the movie seriously anymore are utterly vanquished. Focusing on a number of sequences where a girl has waking nightmares while screaming over and over and over again, it grows incredibly monotonous and throughout the whole thing, Wise conducts everything in a very weighty matter. The performances are rather melodramatic, from Marsha Mason in the lead down to bit parts, though Hopkins keeps his wits about him more or less considering the material. It is a shame that the movie ultimately ends up being a pile of ridiculous and ultimately tedious hoopla though.
No comments:
Post a Comment