(1972)
Dir - Brian De Palma
Overall: GOOD
Brian De Palma's first fully formed thriller and arguably his most deliberately Hitchcockian in nature and execution, Sisters also remains a darkly humorous and potent critique on women's liberation. Throughout the film, men are continually ignoring, condescending to, or ogling the females, females who fight back defiantly and in the case of Margot Kidder's title characters, quite violently. The tone is kept more quirky than preachy though, not getting particularly disturbing until its final act. While the body count is quite low and the emphasis is hardly on gruesomeness, when it does indulge a bit more on such horror components, the effects benefit greatly from De Palma's controlled and often humorously suspenseful presentation. Both narrative and cinematic motifs lifted right out of Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho are present and as if the Hitchcock-channeling was not intentional enough, De Palma even got a semi-retired Bernard Herman to score the film. It is not all just directorial hero worship, but even if it was, there is more than enough substance and style here to carry its copycat/homage nature through.
(1976)
Dir - Herb Freed
Overall: MEH
Though it is persistently undermined by its very rough, amateur production values, Herb Freed's Haunts has a strange sort of charm to it. There are no shortage of unintended laughs due to the standard, low-rent, independent B-movie shortcomings. These include but are not limited to lousy performances from both unprofessional and veteran actors, incomprehensible plotting, stagnant direction, choppy editing, meandering subplots, and cheap, budget-less visuals. Freed does not come off as if he is making anything for sleazy, exploitative purposes as he seems to be going for a dark and sincere, psychological horror vibe. It is just that his ambition exceeds his finances and technical skills, or lack thereof. This not only makes the movie's obvious and numerous flaws forgivable, but also interesting for the bizarre way they come off. Understandably, it does not hold itself together even in a curious way, dragging on for large moments and compromising its off-beat aesthetics to boredom. Ending with a somber and ultimately confusing expository dialog dump at the end does not really help much either, even if Cameron Mitchell is the one delivering it.
(1978)
Dir - Don Taylor/Mike Hodges
Overall: MEH
Any film as successful as The Omen was not bound to go without a sequel and two years later, Damien: Omen II dropped. Even though it is set seven years after the first movie yet still in contemporary times and the Antichrist is now thirteen, never mind that as he is a full-grown adult in 1981's Omen III: The Final Conflict. For a horror follow-up, the formula is pretty standard which is to basically make the same movie again except up the body count. Case in point here. There are some Hollywood heavyweights present once more with William Holden and Lee Grant, Jerry Goldsmith's concocts yet another over-the-top score, and the story by producer Harvey Bernhard recycles the same beats and even some of the same scenes. Some people are on to Damien's infernal legacy, no one believes them, they meet their end in graphically violent ways, Satan wins, hooray. Take out all the fun, ghastly set pieces and you are left with mostly humdrum, bureaucratic-centered dialog, but the focus stays primarily on the good stuff. Director Don Taylor, (and Mike Hodges who was replaced after shooting a number of scenes), do admirable, slick work with the safe material and for those essentially looking for more of the same, the movie easily suffices.
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