The Road To Halloween - Eliminating The Horror 'Classics'

I do take my Letterboxd reviewing pretty seriously. When I say that, I am aware that there may be a perception among some that I should presume that others do the same, but that really isn't the case!

I follow people on Letterboxd who do all manner of reviews and I admire the different styles and techniques of many people on here. But I never believed everyone should approach this the same way. Do it your way! That said, I do approach it all quite seriously even though the content of a lot of my reviews does tend towards the sarcastic and (notionally) comedic a lot of the time.

The reason…

You think that, being stalked and senselessly bitten at - slowly eaten - is the worse thing, so intolerable, so horrible, you have to dash the boy thing's head against the rock and drown it. And it's befitting, you know it's a just arrival, and you won't run because it's your punishment, and she's a simple country girl, she doesn't understand!

Every thoughtless useless decadent self indulgent word or taunt or flippant platitude about your suffering is a small rend by a crow or worse than a crow, what he described: a man or a something which either has a beak or is wearing a mask with a beak. Even when, as your flesh is plucked away (I'd say soul…

This is the second film by Bergman I've seen that is awfully morbid. Did Bergman's fear (or admiration?) of death and its inevitability somehow seeped into his works? It is also important to note that in both this and The Seventh Seal, death is represented or foreshadowed by a pale, white face that reminds one of illness. (Max Von Sydow's face was powdered before he met his demise.) I wonder if there's a similar theme in Persona or any other of his works during that period, it would certainly be interesting if they do, because in the film's wikipedia page it says:

Due to a severe case of pneumonia, Bergman had to interrupt his work on the project. After regaining…

It's tempting always to assume that any film focusing on an artist, photographer, or other worker of a visual medium is in fact a metaphor for the filmmaker, and generally, this interpretation probably isn't wrong. But I feel like limiting the scope of the work to the personal life of the filmmaker--which is often but not always what happens when we take this interpretation--is unfair to the film. The fact that the filmmaker chooses to put up this veil suggests an attempt at something more universal. Johan's madness might be interpreted as Bergman's angst, but I think it fair to say that his obsessive insanities are an illustration of dark muses and troubled artists everywhere.

There's a moment in this…