(1975)
Dir - Terry Bourke
Overall: MEH
The bloated and messy genre mash-up Inn of the Damned from Australian filmmaker Terry Bourke at least gets points for throwing as many clashing elements at the screen that it can think of. In simplest terms, the movie is a Western, though its foreign setting and collection of various accents give it an aloof feel right out of the gate. Confusing matters more is that it also makes various attempts at horror, softcore erotica, and goofy comedy, none of which it does convincingly and many that it does quite randomly. The musical score changes depending on the completely different tone that Bourke is going for from scene to scene and the increasing number of characters detour everything to the point where a primary narrative is virtually undetectable. Some of the tough guy dialog and Western cliche pandering is downright silly, though not in an intentional sense and the two-hour running time is quite unnecessary considering how aimless the presentation is.
(1976)
Dir - Roman Polanski
Overall: GREAT
The final entry in Roman Polanski's apartment trilogy, The Tenant, (Le locataire) is probably the most richly thematic and narratively obscure out of the lot. An adaptation of the 1964 novel Le Locataire chimérique by Roland Topor, (whom Polanski was friends with), the project was originally in long, on-again/off-again development with Jack Clayton. As his follow-up to the world renowned Chinatown and the last film made before his infamous, underage sex scandal, it is a deliberately personal work for Polanski. Besides directing and co-writing the screenplay, he also plays the lead role and as the soft-spoken, unassuming Polish immigrant Trellovsky he gets to explore a psychologically obtrusive environment where his neighbor's persistent and trivial annoyance, interference, and distrust of his every action drives him to paranoia. There is far more going on than even that though with sexual repression and deviance, loss of identity, unwilling social compliance, an an inescapable, looped cycle where the entire movie can even be seen as a traumatic fever dream of another character. It is one of the many he has delivered.
(1977)
Dir - Eddy Matalon
Overall: MEH
The Canadian The Exorcist/The Omen rip-off Cathy's Curse, (Une si gentille petite fille, Cauchermares), from French filmmaker Eddy Matalon has a number of cheap, unintentionally laughable qualities to it, but it also regularly drags. The first English-speaking movie from Matalon, the story is simple enough and provides a number of opportunities for a young girl to be possessed by unwholesome forces, but her behavior is more bratty than disturbing. When the movie's attempts at being scary mostly revolve around her saying "bitch" and "whore" to grown-ups, it hardly constitutes as anything to take seriously. The inappropriate profanity is not limited to the obnoxious title character though and a lot of the supernatural set pieces are too random to be chilling. Performance wise, it is predominantly an embarrassing assortment of stilted line readings and overacting, providing even more accidental hilarity. Flatly lit and blandly directed, when the film is not making you chuckle with its awkward attempts at malevolent profoundness, it is sluggishly and sloppily structured. Silly in all the wrong ways, it does not get by enough on its nonsensical charm to warrant more than a single, curious viewing.
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