I love this fight scene; one of the more realistic ever put to film. She’s absolutely getting trounced by a guy twice as big and strong as she is (and who is equally well-trained) until she gets some help and then gets the upper hand.
That’s from Soderbergh’s Haywire — an underrated film that is endlessly entertaining.
I think Steven Spielberg’s best movie is Munich. Just such a tense nasty little beast.
I’m not sure how to put this exactly without sounding dismissive as I think Spielberg is a great director, but Munich is his only film that feels fully adult.
That scene really speaks to how closely delusion and aspiration dwell together in the human heart. The entire film is just as good.
Catherine Chevalier as Rachel in Nightbreed.
She’s fantastic and both the film and her performance in it are nearly unknown. This is a movie worth seeking out if you’ve never seen it. It has a really, really different tone than movies made now, or even ones produced then. Like a lot of Clive Barker-invovled films, it’s grimy in a way that modern films just can’t seem to duplicate.
Best performance from an actor in horror in 2024?
Other people mention her in thread, but my vote is Nell Tiger Free in The First Omen. It is an otherwise mediocre movie that is worth watching because of Nell’s performance. She really just kills it.
I wish this video weren’t true. But it is. And it’s a microcosm of all that’s wrong with contemporary filmmaking in general (not just trailers).
Yes, it’s in odious fucking “YouTube Voice,” but it’s still a great look at how important editors are to films and exactly what they contribute.
Roger Ebert’s 4-Star Review of ‘Halloween’ Made Me Want to Be a Writer.
I miss Roger Ebert. I often disagreed with him, but never regretted reading what he wrote. Siskell & Ebert is what made me love movies and to see them in a way I likely otherwise would not have.
There are not any critics like him left writing any longer and that is indeed a great loss.
That’s a cool publicity shot of Samara Weaving from Ready or Not, but the funny thing is that in the movie that gun doesn’t even work — it’s a dummy (in the world of the film itself).
Anyone else enjoy Blood Red Sky?
The film itself was ok. Worth watching. But Peri Baumeister as the protag Nadja gives a fucking knockout performance. That’s the reason to watch the film there.
Some actors make a film. She did for that one.
I was talking with a woman at work and I mentioned I’d seen the first Dune in 70mm Imax.
She said, “Isn’t that pretty small?” For a split second, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I realized she thought “70mm” was the screen size, not the film stock. I couldn’t help laughing. But once I explained she laughed along with me. I still chuckle a little thinking about it.
What’s your comfort horror movie?
Trick ‘r Treat. It’s just such a goddamn good film. It’s underrated as horror always is. Also, because it feels like an 80s movie, which throws a lot of younger millennials and Gen Z off. It’s not prudish, in other words.
Such a gem that went unrecognized for years. And so funny too, in a macabre way.
Brian De Palma on the ‘Body Double’ Ending and His New Film.
That is a good film that sometimes hits greatness.
Body Double is beloved today. But it’s also the kind of movie that nobody could make today
That’s true; I miss those kind of movies. Sydney Sweeney in The Voyeurs is as close as we can get these days. And De Palma on younger millennials and Gen Z is dead on.
What I find interesting when you see contemporary people watch these movies is they’re shocked by the nudity. They go, “Oh my God.” I’m thinking, What, are we living in the Victorian Age here? You know, they have these things on YouTube where they have two people watching a movie and reacting as they watch it? I saw two people watching the opening of Carrie. I thought they were going to have a heart attack! I was like, What has happened to this next generation? They seem to have gotten very Victorian.
I don’t think that the new Puritans realize they are living staid, bland lives at the behest of tech companies and their profits. But it’s obvious when you think about it (as De Palma also has) for 30 seconds. I wonder what if anything will shift this cultural course?
Another underrated film. I’d say it merits at least a 7.5. It’s underrated because it does not handhold the viewer very much; it does not tell you what to think or why. And it turns out people really prefer to have what to think really hammered in there.
Got hold of 4K transfer of The Fourth Kind and people, it’s beautiful. (And yes, I do have a monitor that can view 4K content correctly.)
