I’d already reviewed everything from Roger Corman Tribute Night, but most of the Italian Horror Night program was new to me:
A Blade in the Dark (1983), which started out as a four-part TV miniseries, and might have been at least slightly better if it had remained one…
Cemetery Man (1993), which might be the Gen-Xiest movie ever made by a bunch of people born in the 50’s…
and…
Opera (1987), which I was all set to praise as Dario Argento’s best pure giallo until he went and got Dario Argento all over it.
Meanwhile, I also saw all these over the past month or so:
House of the Living Dead (1973), a strange and in some ways extremely old-fashioned gothic from South Africa, of all places…
The Substance (2024), in which regaining one’s youth isn’t all it’s cracked up to be…
Sword of the Valiant (1983), in which Stephen Weeks’s second go-round with the legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight goes awry completely differently from his first…
and…
The Turn of the Screw (1989), in which I finally complete the set for Showtime’s old “Nightmare Classics” package of made-for-TV mini-movies.
El Santo rules the wasteland-- and also 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting.
#1 by Hurdy Gurdy Man on November 10, 2024 - 12:13 am
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Oh I love love love OPERA. It’s partly because of the gorgeous style but mainly because it’s just so damn entertaining.
The pre-climax and climax is ripped off almost as is from Thomas Harris’s novel Manhunter, which ironically did not make it into the film adaptation made around the same time as Opera.
I also wanted to ask if you intend to continue with the Monsterverse reviews post Kong: Skull Island.
#2 by El Santo on November 12, 2024 - 4:56 pm
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“I also wanted to ask if you intend to continue with the Monsterverse reviews post-Kong: Skull Island.”
One of these days. Back in 2019, I wrote half a review of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, but it was unfocused, unreadable garbage, so I scrapped it rather than trying to fix it. That bit of unfinished business doesn’t needle me very hard this many years out, but it does needle me.
#3 by supersonic on November 24, 2024 - 12:57 pm
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I nave never had much tolerance for Argento. I think I even rented Opera once, and only made it about fifteen minutes in.
#4 by supersonic on November 25, 2024 - 7:08 pm
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I’ve always favored the critical reading of Screw which sees the “ghosts” as essentially trying to preserve the children’s individuality and humanity in the face of Victorian oppression, because it appears to be saying that he dies at the moment when she finally gains victory at driving out the spirit of Quint. “With the stroke of the loss I was so proud of he uttered the cry of a creature hurled over an abyss… and his little heart, dispossessed, had stopped.” In other words, once repression has been achieved the child’s true self can’t continue living.
Your review doesn’t tell me whether this performance is compatible with that view or not, but I found the thing on Youtub, so maybe I’ll watch it.
#5 by Avid Reader on November 25, 2024 - 9:23 pm
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Any chance you’ll be circling back to do a review of Halloween Ends soon. Was *very curious to know your thoughts on that one.
I do always appreciate your reviews on Argento though, would also be curious to hear your thoughts on “Inferno” and “Mother of Tears” to finish out that loose series of films.