Letterboxd — Your life in film

Overwhelmingly generic. Vengeful spirits with long black hair. There are one or two moments that are halfway to being creepy, everything else is just feels so tired. It's ready-meal horror, bland and cheap.

The anachronistic narrative is the only means to really engage with the film. We question (albeit briefly) whether this scene is happening before or after the one we just saw. Once that's been established it's back to the familiar routine. Introduce a character, scare them and kill…

This final film from Mario Bava is so much more restrained than his previous works. It's often written off as being highly derivative of 1970s familial horror, which is probably more a result of when the film came out. It's much more of a psychological horror than it is a ghost story, a haunted house story or whatever else we make expect from the films marketing.

The film centres around a mothers growing fear/distrust of her son. The son behaves…

This is a very good film. The world in which characters inhabit is familiar yet strangely foreign, like the way the world works seems off-kilter to what we may be used to. Yet there is still a strong sense of realism that runs deep, characters shout and scream over each other as conversations become muddled and chaotic.

Perhaps the reason for this not-quite-familiar sensation that carries on throughout the film is that we see the world through the eyes and…

A maverick defense attorney becomes a hard-boiled detective, taking a case filled with murder and corruption. The film is a typical 90s thriller with plenty of nods to film-noir. In a typical noir way, almost all characters have a darker side to them that grows and grows as the film progresses.

Despite being clearly rooted in genre, it is able to take a step back and look at the moral implications of actions undertaken by characters. What does it mean…

This isn't a good film but it has one or two moments that save it from being totally awful. Its certainly not a film that will be of interest to many, it's very slow and has a heavy focus on decay, specifically bodily decay. More time is allotted for the depiction of the body rotting than there is time for dialogue, character development etc.

The idea behind everything is fine, but the film is incapable of really doing anything with…

A stop-motion adaptation of the Pied Piper fairytale. German expressionist cinema from the 1920s seems to have been a large influence on the films stylistic choices. The towns buildings lean and point in several directions whilst throwing jagged shadows across walls and pavements. The townsfolk carry a similar angled and sharp look, as if to show that they themselves are a byproduct of this cruel environment.

Whilst the world depicted is far removed from any sense of reality, the themes…

A peculiar horror film that doesn't rely on visuals but a deeply uncomfortable atmosphere. A man, refered to only as Baby, lives with his mother and two sisters, as a baby. He wears nappies, cant talk or walk etc. The film gives two possible explanations, that he has a learning disability (this is one of the most uncomfortable moments in the film, not purposefully so, it's just ill advised) or that his regressed state is the result of many years…

Well crafted film-noir that utilizes the conventions and tropes greatly yet takes place in an environment not immediately associated with the genre, amidst mountains and deserts. High contrast lighting paints characters with ambiguity, often entirely hidden within darkness their voices the only indication to their presence. Also adds a dizzying sense of scale to the wide open deserts, which contrasts the tight confines of the car, in which they travel in. Shadows hide faces and conceal weapons.

There is a…

Above average British horror anthology. What makes this stand out against similar films is that the story at the heart of the film, the story that connects all the short stories, is actually interesting. The four short stories are all built upon atmosphere and mystery, which is fairly consistent throughout, centered around events that cause characters to question the legitimacy of what they see. Which is of course what the film asks of us.
There are some very of-their-time stylistic…

A brutal depiction of civil man against uncivil man. Little time is wasted with things such as exposition or character development, all we need to know is these people are from civilization where they have morals and laws and these people are from a place with no laws and an entirely different moral compass. It's not that much different in its set up to other cannibal films of the era, yet feels like its missing something.

Deodato's next film, Cannibal…