(1991)
Dir - Stuart Gordon
Overall: MEH
Director Stuart Gordon and frequent screenwriter collaborator Dennis Paoli's The Pit and the Pendulum, (The Inquisitor), is straightforward, witch trial horror that goes through the motions as many other films of its kind had before it. The title of course comes from the famous Edgar Allan Poe story, one that has been adapted in name only to the screen numerous times throughout the decades. The story here is interchangeable with any other set during the Spanish Inquisition, where terrified and innocent peasants were tortured with the kind of laughably disturbing "damned if they do, damned if they don't" logic. Also, the main Inquisitor once again falls in love with one of these accused beauties which goes about as well as it does in any other such movie from the 70s that uses an identical plot devise. Assuredly lacking in originality then, Gordon is a solid enough filmmaker to at least make such an excursion darkly entertaining. Lance Henrikson is an efficiently hammy, one-note villain and familiar genre faces such as Mark Margolis, Jeffrey Combs, Tom Towles, Frances Bay, and even Oliver Reed in a sweaty cameo all do an equally admirable job. It is by the books to a fault, but innocently so.
(1995)
Dir - Todd Haynes
Overall: GOOD
Notable for featuring one of the first leading roles for Julianne Moore who delivers a delicate, transformative performance as a San Fernando homemaker who succumbs to multiple chemical sensitivity and its pseudo-science, New Age treatment program, Safe doubles as filmmaker Todd Haynes most chilling examination of psychological detachment. One in a long line of films that takes dark inspiration from society's growing complacency and reliance on frivolous domestic concerns, it specifically looks at the emotional trauma that is suffered by those who struggle with their newfound ailment, even if it can be fairly described as detrimentally influenced by those who wish to "cure" it. Haynes manages to stage everything with deliberate distance, avoiding closeups and putting the viewer in a fly-on-the-wall seat where we can only witness what is going on without being spoon-fed any direct answers as to what Moore's frail protagonist is truly suffering. This emphasizes that the point is not what she is going through but how it is effecting her, turning her from one form of a sheepish existence into another where she has traded her clean and superficial housewife persona for one as a debilitated victim amongst a commune of others who both support and enable her.
(1997)
Dir - Peter Hyams
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
This textbook reptilian/monster/nature horror movie from Peter Hyams was an adaptation of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's novel Relic, with the adjective "The" added to the cinematic version here presumably just to give the theatrical poster artists more letters to work with. Besides the derivative and uncompelling narrative that is all too easy to tune-out of, another problem is one that was probably is the consistently dark cinematography which not only obscures the murderous, half CGI/half puppet creature, (party for the better as the digital effects are primitive and lousy), but also many, many other shots that are unnecessarily pitch-black. The frenzied editing job is another typical feature coming from late 90s, sufficiently budgeted action films and it also goes a long way in making the movie just as frustrating to view as the "What the hell am I even looking at?" lack of lighting. The cast is not bad, but they are also interchangeable as any character actor could have handled yelling the tough-guy dialog or screaming at the scary thing that are chasing them. It is a mediocre effort all around; dark, loud, and wet with some explody-ness to keep its popcorn-munching nature in line.
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