(1971)
Dir - Sam Peckinpah
Overall: MEH
The infamous home invasion thriller Straw Dogs was Sam Peckinpah's rather misguided exploration of sadism and misogyny, a film unpleasant enough to strike a great deal of well deserved criticism upon its release. An adaptation of Gordon M. Williams' novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm, Peckinpah and co-screenwriter David Zelag Goodman reworked many of the earlier plot points, though they kept the final set piece intact where Dustin Hoffman and Susan George get besieged by drunken sociopaths in their rented, Cornish abode. While the director takes his usual, unflinching approach to the brutality of the material and it is anything but glamorized, it nevertheless becomes murky as to what may be the intended takeaway. Each character, (including the would-be relatable couple), exhibit irrational, destructive behavior which seems to suggest that there is a disturbing disregard for women either lurking subconsciously or right out in the open. In this way, it presents a bias, cynical view that is made more uncomfortable by the movie's deliberate lack of warmth and its nearly two-hour running time. A challenging movie to be sure, but whether it was intentional or not, it is hardly one that is intellectually fulfilling enough to revisit.
(1973)
Dir - George A. Romero
Overall: MEH
Released the same year as the vastly superior yet quite different Season of the Witch, The Crazies i.e. "Unattractive Actors Yelling All of Their Lines - The Movie" is a miserable viewing experience that retreads many of George A. Romero's frequented themes in the least successful of ways. It is essentially another zombie outbreak movie, except instead of flesh-eating ghouls, it has people gradually losing their grip on reality before resorting to aloof insanity or balls-out violence. While it centers on a small band of blue collar characters, their dialog is as banal and occasionally even as loud as the other half of the story which focuses on scientists and military personnel spending a hundred percent of their scenes arguing with each other at peak volume. A sense of hopelessly ill-prepared and unorganized chaos is certainly intentional on Romero's part, but the shoddy production values, (including awful stock music and poorly recorded, overlapping dialog), and relentless bickering makes it nearly unwatchable. Romero loved to show human being's inability to cope with and overcome an apocalyptic event, but he was often able to explore such things in a far more engaging, potent, and not to mention atmospherically eerie way than here.
(1977)
Dir - Ken Wiederhorn
Overall: MEH
Indestructible Nazi zombies sounds like a swell idea on paper, but Shock Waves does not necessarily get by on its premise alone. The full-length debut from Ken Wiederhorn, he and producer Reuben Trane were Columbia University graduates who had already won an Academy Award for their student film Manhattan Melody four years prior. Though they were able to score Peter Cushing, (the same year that he appeared in Star Wars no less), Brooke Adams, and about a days worth of shooting with John Carradine, this is a noticeably low-budget affair despite its surprisingly schlock-less intentions. The look of the SS undead is pretty striking and they make a menacing presence in part due to the fact that they do not act as slow, Romero-style flesh-eaters. Instead, they are tactful, normal moving soldiers who just so happen to have the ability to live underwater for decades at a time. Despite being enhanced to withstand any climate and kill without the need of any weapons, they still collapse within a few moments of having their goggles removed from their heads, so figure that one out. The story has a fun gimmick, but there is hardly anywhere to go with it as the majority of the movie is the same characters prodding through knee-high water, hiding, and then just slowly getting picked off.
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