(1980)
Dir - Peter Medak
Overall: GOOD
A well-regarded and often imitated haunted house film, The Changeling is based on playwright Russell Hunter's story which was allegedly inspired by events he experienced while living in a mansion in Denver, Colorado. Regardless of any "true story" nonsense, it is a mostly successful work. Hungarian-born Peter Medak was the third director attached to the project who was brought in nearly at the eleventh hour before shooting took place and he does pretty remarkable work. Several set pieces are quite spooky and though numerous portions drag a bit once things become too plot heavy, the atmosphere remains chillingly in place. George C. Scott is effortlessly excellent as a grieving yet practical widower and every other performance is similarly controlled. Sadly, the film is only moderately compelling once it begins to drift farther away from its supernatural components and the emotional arc of Scott's protagonist, but it is still technically strong enough from top to bottom to rank as one of the better such movies of its kind.
(1987)
Dir - Lars von Trier
Overall: MEH
Ambitious yet ultimately underwhelming, Lars von Trier's third full-length Epidemic doubles as the second installment in his Europa trilogy. Even this early in his career and working with a seemingly zero dollar budget, von Trier's pessimism towards human beings and deliberate glee with making his audience uncomfortable are still very persistent. In one particular scene, he and his screenwriter, (both playing themselves and both spending very few of their scenes not smirking at everything), map out their film-within-a-film on a wall and delight in how hopeless its outcome will be and what a great mockery of religion they will make. The movie's lack of production values and meandering pace certainly make for an unpleasant watch, but perhaps not in the profound way von Trier pretentiously intends. In any even, it is not a total waste as the line "What the hell, all a nigga needs are loose shoes, tight pussies, and a warm place to shit" makes an appearance which may be the greatest bit of dialog any black and white art film about movie making and a global pandemic ever produced.
(1989)
Dir - Jean-Teddy Filippe
Overall: GOOD
A collection of found footage shorts by Jean-Teddy Filippe which appeared on the French public service channel Arte in 1989, Les documents interdits, (The Forbidden Files, Banned Reels, Untersagte Aufnahmen), is an interesting if uneven curiosity. Filmed between 1986 and 1989, (with a much later stand-alone segment called "The Exam" made in 2010), the stories all range from three to thirteen minutes in length. They are crudely shot, many on Super 8 film, and most are featured as found footage with some faux television broadcasts thrown in as well. The narration over many of them is quite necessary as for the most part, very little extraordinary occurrences are shown and the quality is quite grainy and poor. It is mostly people disappearing or acting somewhat aloof so naturally, certain episodes are more successfully unnerving than others. The botched, paranormal broadcast "The Ferguson Case" is the most conventionally horror-tinged and others like "The Witch" and "Le Fou due Carrefour" have some intriguing moments as well.
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