Thursday, May 13, 2010

FILLMORE DISCOS 47 - '70s RARITIES 4

A Bell From Hell, 1973 (*****)
fantastic Spanish horror full of breathtakingly surreal and kinky violence as a young man is let out of a mental hospital to return to Galicia in order to exact revenge on his aunt and her three daughters; I'd be very curious to hear from anyone who's seen the original 106 minute version

Bad Ronald, 1974 (****)
brilliantly twisted story from writer Jack Vance; after killing a young girl, Ronald, our young antihero, hides from justice in his very own house with the help of his clingy mother; things get complicated when she falls ill and dies in hospital...

The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane, 1976 (*****)
Martin Sheen is suitably creepy and Jodie Foster is amazing as the precocious Rynn, a little girl like any young girl, she craves for love from adults, not to be protected nor preyed upon

Willard, 1971 (****)
thoroughly creepy story of an oddball son who befriends the rats in his cellar; there is a marvellous juxtaposition of the rats' and humans' behaviour, with predictably disfavourable results for the latter

Willard, 2003 (*)
this annoying remake is so heavily stylised as to render the original intent of the narrative completely redundant

A Nightmare On Elm Street, 1984 (***)
the original is still the franchise's best, but the film hasn't aged well, and Wes Craven never knows where to find the balance between suspenseful horror and silly cartoonery; Johnny Depp delivers a an early career-defining wooden performance

A Nightmare On Elm Street, 2010 (*)
expectedly appalling, hopelessly inept remake by Samuel Bayer, a heavy metal video director cum design squadder completely out of his depth

FILLMORE DISCOS 46
FILLMORE DISCOS 45 - '70s RARITIES 3
FILLMORE DISCOS 44

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Most of the TV series "Freddy's Nightmares" was terrible, but there were a few episodes (2 I can think of) that tried to up the icky factor by introducing an oedipal component to the plot (mother coming on sexually to son), that, coupled with its late 80's/early 90's american TV vibe, could literally induce pre-nausea ear-ringing.

One of those episodes was called "It's a Miserable Life". The other one I can't remember the title, but it involved parents returning unexpectedly to a teenage house party and somehow the father is decapitated by a bear trap.