Vera Chytilová directs Ivana Karbanová, Jitka Cerhová and Marie Cesková in this surreal Czechoslovakian curio where two young women try to behave as badly possible.
Go home DADA, your daughters want their time to shine. Joyous, decadent, playful, purposeful. A series of manic skits, many of which stretch the traditional narrative format – this gives Western contemporaries Monty Python and Richard Lester a run for their money… the jokes still land, the feminist intent is still fresh and the mash-up of animation and in-camera FX feel aesthetically revolutionary. This is a movie with a lot to say, that transcends its scrappy lo-fi nature and features two attractive lead turns from a pair of Czech ladies who spend half the movie bouncing around in bikinis. Banned by Czech authorities upon its release for “depicting the wanton”… which now feels like an endorsement no capitalist movie could ever afford to purchase.
Christian Petzold directs Benno Furmann, Nina Hoss and Hilmi Sozer in this German neo-noir where a penniless ex-soldier begins working for a paranoid businessman with a beautiful young wife.
Minimalist neo-noir with fine acting from Hilmi Sozer. Gives voice to the entrepreneurial immigrant experience, both as a perpetual outsider and marked success compared to the feckless, broke natives.
Michael Sarnoski directs Nicolas Cage, Alex Wolff and Adam Arkin in this indie thriller where a hermit truffle farmer breaks his seclusion when his beloved pig is stolen.
More a meditation on grief and authenticity than a John Wick style actioner, this is full of gentle surprises. Cage delivers his most grounded performance in decades, yet there are still enough quirky wrinkles to keep the me me meme crowd happy. Has a lovely autumnal look, as if the crew used the soil and twigs encrusted in a boot tread as a palette chart. Minor but worthwhile.
Richard Donner, Don Taylor, Mike Hodges and Graham Baker direct Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Billie Whitelaw, William Holden, Lee Grant, Jonathan Scott-Taylor, Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi and Lisa Harrow in this trilogy of blockbuster horror movies following the new antichrist from birth to rise-to-power.
A beloved horror franchise in our house, The Omen is a stodgy, classy mix of past-it studio stars, creepy newcomers and grizzled extras traipsing through some very warped biblical lore to deliver us a cavalcade of Special Effects Deaths. Jerry Goldsmith’s overwrought themes, drab international location work and nonsensical timelines. It is hard to think of any other period when a major studio bet so much money and prestige on the least favoured of genres. The only way to approach this series is to rank the intricate kills… so here we go!
1. “It’s All For You”
Not the most spectacular chain of events in the franchise but certainly the most shocking. Richard Donner keeps the hot young nanny floating around in the background for a few scenes, never giving her a featured shot, never tipping the hat that we should keep an eye on her. Then suddenly she’s hanging herself at a birthday party in a scene that comes as a genuine jolt. Smile on her face, no hesitancy. Leap. Neck snapped. A crowd of children and clowns look aghast. Though some of the younger rubberneckers cannot conceal their enthralment. A pitch perfect horror sequence – hits all the right notes.
2. Glazing Decapitation
Iconic! So good that Richard Donner shows the glass pane swiping through a doomed David Warner’s neck twice. Just so those wusses who cover their eyes got a chance to see the fake head spinning in slow motion.
3. Bugenhagen Intro
The rare survivor of the first entry, Leo McKern’s crabby archaeologist is set up in a dynamic prologue for Part II as a potential man of action. After bombing around Israel in his jeep, he meets Ian Hendry for an al fresco chat. He catches this newcomer up on Damien’s devilish existence and those daggers of Megiddo (the only weapons that can kill the Anti-Christ). Exposition out of the way, you assume this salty partnership will travel the globe hunting the child demon. But no… on exiting an excavation, there is a sudden cave-in. Trapped in a tunnel, slowly filling with sand, the pair realise they shan’t be beating the devil any time soon…
4. Pecked To Distraction
Attacked by crows on a roadside. Eyes pecked out. Walking blind into a speeding Mack truck and then flung high into the air by the impact. I’m not even sure the lady in red who suffers this Omen II demise even needs to be part of the narrative. She exists solely to be snuffed out nastily.
5. Elevator split
Definitely conceptualised to try and top David Warner’s decapitation, this comes pretty close in terms of gore and its OTT execution. Again though… the poor doctor is barely in the film before the fates start aligning lethally against him.
6. The Ambassador Will See You Now
Part 3 often has a misguided rep of moving away from those trademark big Grand Guignol deaths. Yet it kicks off with an absolute barnstormer. The U.S. ambassador to Britain gets hypnotised by one of Damien’s cute-as-fuck hellhound. He walks blankly back to the embassy and sets an elaborate trap that will shoot his brain’s out if anyone enters his office. Then he calls Ruby Wax in. SPLAT!
7. Putney Spike
I used to walk my dog in Bishop’s Park where Patrick Troughton famously gets impaled by a church spike.
8. Switching Locomotive
Top Tip: If you are driven crazy by the thought that your boss’ nephew is the devil incarnate AND can cause fatal accidents at will, then maybe… just maybe… don’t stand on the train tracks when waiting around the rolling stock yards.
9. Massacre of the Nazarene
A kid’s ball instigates a pram hit-and-run. A priest absent mindedly drown a baby during a baptism. A creepy montage of infant murders where the followers of Thorn cause a series of accidents to kill off any boys born on a certain day. Followed by a third act reprise, where a mother is compelled to kill her own baby who has slipped through the net. The Final Conflict is full of cruel immoral shit like this and it presents it with a curious non-judgmental air. As if it knows some of us might be rooting for Sam Neill’s dark tyrant more than the incompetent forces of light.
10. The Bloodhound Gang
No idea what the monks of San Benedetto endgame was when they disrupt a fox hunt to try a lure Damien to his death? It ends badly. One goes head first off a high bridge, the other is ripped to shreds by a pack of dogs. We get to see adult Damien actively involved in a killing. He even rubs the blood of his latest victim on the cheeks of his new girlfriend’s son. Another follower of Thorn is inducted.
Ben Wheatley directs Neil Maskell, Michael Smiley and MyAnna Buring in this horror tinged British thriller where a pair of hitmen take on a contract that pulls them towards an otherworldly darkness.
Low budget, talky, abrasive, nasty… one of the finest movies of the 21st century. To list Kill List’s most obvious influences would be to give away the biggest revelation. But it’s fair to say even before the folk horror route starts to dominate the atmosphere, this is a very grim, very compelling work of genre. We are introduced to our protagonists in an extended Mike Leigh / Ken Loach style domestic setting. Falling outs have a recognisable reality, jokes land with a sitcom brevity within the slanging matches, domestic violence and reconciliations. Creepy characters start to steal focus. Jovial Michael Smiley’s slightly off-key dinner date is up to something cunning, the dead looking man who assigns them their hits feels like the devil himself. All pre-existing relationships seem strange and strained, all new interactions feel alien. Yet it all takes place in the mundane world of suburban back gardens, two star chain hotels and every car park in Yorkshire seemingly. Then the killings begin. Everything is off key aside from the extreme violence. Initially reluctant Jay (Maskell – excellent) seems to regain his mojo, leans into the deadly work a little too enthusiastically. And now they can’t get out. We see a pagan ritual at a slight remove through a sniper sight, get lost in a sewer system, chased by a swarm of nude true believers. A stand-out set piece that is claustrophobic and relentlessly fervid. The purposefully disorientating out-of-sync editing style of all this is exemplary, fascinating, really pulls you in. A riddle of image matches and hints that suggests some nightmarish bigger picture we never fully comprehend, even once it is far too late. The moment Kill List closes up shop, I want to watch it straight away again. Black hearted, perfect.
Robert Siodmak directs Dorothy McGuire, George Brent and Ethel Barrymore in this thriller where a mute carer is stalked by a killer who preys upon girls with disabilities.
More murder mystery than slasher, but with plenty of chills. Oscillates from creaky to creepy, Siodmak plays with darkness fabulously. Is the eventual killer guessable?… a little… Does Elsa Lanchester have a neat comic relief role as a tipsy cook?… yes, indeedy…
Robert Eggers directs Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman and Anya Taylor-Joy in this Viking revenge saga epic.
I am going to confess to being a little overwhelmed by this. I was in and out of the movie, in and in and out my of my headspace a little too much to fully savour everything. Eggers goes for a full method approach when it comes to historical detail and it can feel like a genuine culture shock. You marvel at the tactile verisimilitude, but the emotional connection can feel a little distant. Even with the very familiar narrative throughline of revenge. The battle sequences are pounding. I know something has got its extreme violence absolutely spot on when I’m laughing at just how excessive and nasty it is at least once a set-piece. Yet then Eggers slaps us with a bit of conscience, showing us how the weak and the civilised fare after we get our action fix in these alien times. The guilt trip feels well played. Listen, I loved the gore. Loved the beserking. Loved the folklore. Loved Anya Taylor-Joy. Loved the big operatic fantasy swings. Loved Bjork. I’ll see it again on the big screen. It is an instant Blu-Ray purchase in a few months time. But a week later and I still feel exhausted by it all!
Paul Verhoeven directs Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling and Daphne Patakia in this period nunsploitation movie where, in 17th century Tuscany, a good girl nun starts receiving visions of Christ just as plague, comets and a hot new cell mate turn up in her town.
Exactly what you’d instantly expect from Verhoeven if you heard he was going to direct the true story of a lesbian nun making a power play. That predictability is a little disappointing, all the shock seems quite wholesome in context. It is very well acted and handsomely shot. More prestige than cheap exploitation, more playful than transgressive. Benedetta shares a lot of plot and character DNA with Showgirls but where that was bruisingly lurid and camp, this feels quite accessible. Wimples replace rhinestones, critics can feel vindicated. Yet it isn’t quite the bad taste treat I personally craved.
Jay Chandrasekhar directs himself and the rest of the Broken Lizard troupe, Jürgen Prochnow, and Cloris Leachman in this comedy where a group of Americans practice to represent their country in an underground Munich beer downing contest.
Laughed loads during this – it is very frat boy-ish but that’s not the stuff that lands. It nearly matches the hit rate of Super Troopers but the opening act features only the two boring expendable members for an extended length of time and the finale outstays its welcome. What happens to Kevin Heffernan’s Landfill character at the midway point makes up for any structural quibbles though.
Sergio Corbucci directs Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski and Vonetta McGee in this spaghetti western where a silent avenger hunts down some nasty bounty hunters who are killing off outlaws before an amnesty ends their cruel profession.
Bleak, snowy western. Full of risky surprises. The cast is pretty striking, though only Frank Wolff’s jovial sheriff really gets to do any acting. Possibly the best of its cycle not directed by Leone. An obvious influence on Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Was banned in the UK and buried in the US for over twenty years.
Bobby Carroll's Movie Diary 