Day 292: Possession (1981) - Rank 4/5

I'm not sure if I truly liked this film or not, but I can say one thing: I couldn't draw my eyes away from the screen. While the analogy is dreadfully overused, it was like watching a train wreck - horrific and grisly, yet there's something about the carnage that's hypnotic. Sam Neill and Isabele Adjani both turn in amazing - nay - frightening performances as a couple whose marriage is fast collapsing. Mark (Neill) returns home after a business trip and finds that his wife Anna (Adjani) wishes to leave him, admitting that she has found a new lover. Mark tracks down her lover Heinrich only to find that Anna has spurned him as well. So who is she sleeping with exactly? The question should not be who, but what, for Anna's new love is a creature that looks almost like a half-human, half-penis, drenched in placenta drippings, which moves about with the aid of multiple tentacles.

The film falls into the "What the hell did I just watch?" category reserved for some of the more bizarre films that have arisen, from many of Lynch's films to newer puzzlements, such as "Uzumaki," "Audition" or "Visions of Suffering." In fact, it's somewhat akin to Lynch's "Eraserhead" in the sense that if "Eraserhead" is the manifestation of a nightmare a man has after finding out that his girlfriend is pregnant, then "Possession" is a nightmare that one might have at the first signs of a divorce. It's not a pretty film to watch by any means, but the allure of seeing a film where Sam Neill drowns a man in a toilet filled with vomit is hard to resist.

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Day 291: Black Sunday (1960) - Rank 3.5/5

I'm sure it will be a horror faux pas not to give the quintessential Mario Bava pic the highest of marks, but there was just an element that kept me from being completely hooked into the story. The trouble is, upon reflection, it's hard to say exactly what. My first instinct is to suggest pacing, for the plot does unfold at a deliberately somber rate. However, there are a number of horror films I absolutely love from that era, from "The Haunting" to the Corman/Price Poe adaptations that progress at a slower rate. I can't criticize the script either, for not only is it pretty solid within its own right, but it also invokes a delightfully macabre atmosphere, not unlike good Lovecraft tales. The cinematography as eerily beautiful as much of the work Conrad Hall in the black and white medium and the acting moody...so why didn't the film grab me?

The more I think about it, the more I have to place the blame on unrealistically high expectations based on too much hype. Typically, hype only ruins a newer film for me - the very reason I held off on seeing "Star Trek" upon its original release. So why did "Black Sunday" have so much buzz about it considering it's a fifty year old film? Well, simply put, I hang out with a lot of old school horror geeks. I will point out though that the film merits revisitation at a later date, simply because, as I already mentioned, for all intents and purposes, I should have loved this film.

By the way, as you may note, the year is over, but I shall finish the backlog of reviews from films I watched in 2009 before I leave the blog be, even if I'm only writing these reflections for myself.

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Day 290: Dead Ringers (1988) - Rank 5/5

For anyone who doubts that the awesomeness that is Jeremy Irons, he needs only to watch “Die Hard with a Vengeance” to see the actor at the pinnacle of his career. But as hard as it may be to believe, Irons does outdo his stellar performance as the brother of Alan Rickman (oh, if only they really were brothers, what an awesome family that would be…). Irons assumes the roles of twin gynecologists in David Cronenberg’s dark tale of mutant women and the men who pine for them.

Elliot and Beverly act as a yin and yang for one another – Elliot is the extroverted of the two, making the majority of the public appearances for the duo and conquering women with the slightest of ease, while Beverly is quiet, intellectual and shy, creating the majority of the innovations the two are known for and humbly accepting the females that Twin A has spurned. When Beverly falls in love with movie actress Claire Niveau (Genevieve Bujold), yet another reject of Elliot, and he finds himself rejected by her, his world collapses. He regresses into a realm of drug-addiction and depression to the point that he creates custom gynecological tools that look more like torture devices. It’s evident that Beverly can only regard all women as mutants as his sense of alienation grows out of control, and soon Elliot finds himself spiraling in a similar downfall, for the two are interlinked through emotion and experience. Irons was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and deservedly so. He portrays the identical twins in such contrasting ways that not even the viewer has trouble distinguishing between the two. As time has passed, I’ve found myself repeatedly reflecting back upon this film, leading me to the conclusion that this is definitely one of Cronenberg’s best (though certainly not the most pleasant to watch).

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Day 289: His Girl Friday (1940) - Rank 3.5/5

Here’s Cary Grant in yet another screwball comedy that’s reminiscent of “Brining Up, Baby.” Once again, the tale is occurring on the cusp of a wedding, though Rosalind Russell is the bride-to-be. She’s on the verge of departing on her honeymoon when she’s roped into an execution/jailbreak story by her old editor and flame, (Grant). Grant stirs the embers of her newshound ways and ropes her back into his life under the guise that he needs her to assist him with the scoop of the century.

The series of shenanigans that are tied together loosely with a plot are entertaining enough, though they start to feel flat about halfway in. I feel as if at one stage, the writer thought, “Damn it, this story’s getting too absurd for its own good” and so he roped back in some of the more rational characters to tone down the antics, leaving the film feeling a little uneven at points. However, Cary Grant still delivers his trademark, befuddled charm like only Hugh Grant desperately wishes he could.

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Day 288: Friday the Thirteenth: The Final Chapter (1984) - Rank 2.5/5

What can I say here? The fourth installment of the “Friday the Thirteenth” trilogy is filled with all the pathos, metaphorical imagery and subtle character development that one would expect from the fourth installment of any horror franchise. The killings that take place throughout the film are merely incidental to the plot which focuses on a group of young teenagers who want nothing more than to embrace life. Their inebriated revelry and debaucherous, sexual escapades are representative of the freedom of youth. Jason, then, could correctly be interpreted as an allegory for adulthood and responsibility.

Jason strikes down every adolescent he can the moment that they begin to revel in the pleasures of fleshly love. It is only the actions of a young Corey Feldman that quell the beast. His soothing gesture is to shave his head and make himself appear as the deliverer of swift, machete justice. While the ending can be interpreted in a multitude of manners, it’s clear that the filmmakers have one moral they wish to convey: the appearance of early maturity is advantageous during the annals of adolescence. Feldman survives by donning the attire of the representation of authority. Truly, if we all wish to escape the persecution of our oppressors, we must live under the guise that we are like they. But, don’t be fooled, for as the film demonstrates, only the façade is necessary to dupe the antagonist, not the alteration of one’s morals. Perhaps this is the most dangerous message of all then, for the story seems to say: convince you superiors that you are one of them and when their vengeance is quelled, strike them down with greater haste. It’s surprising then that the film didn’t spark a youth revolt upon its release. I think that the fault then lies in the fact that a young Crispin Glover is called upon to dance ad nauseum during the film’s third act – a display so cryptic that even the most analytical of viewers fail to interpret the message behind the gyrations.

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Day 287: The Virgin Spring (1960) - Rank 4.5/5

The story begins when a young, nubile girl hiking through the woods comes across comes across a pair of men, one of whom is accompanied by his son. At first their meeting is pleasant, but it’s not long before the girl is raped and killed. Later, the killers seek lodging at the home of the girl’s family and it isn’t long before the father figures out who they are. He must then decide if he should reduce himself to their level and exact a similar revenge to their crime.

While this might sound like I’m describing the premise to Wes Craven’s “Last House on the Left,” “The Virgin Spring” is actually a pensive little exercise in revenge by Ingmar Bergman. As is customary is Bergman’s tales, faith is an intertwining theme between incidents. (Max von Sydow) is a pious man who feels as if he’s going throught eh trials of Job throughout the incident, and despite his devout, religious beliefs, his overwhelming desire is to make his murderous houseguests suffer as much as he can. But despite the dark theme of the film, it’s beautifully shot and told, making it feel like a lost parable brought to life.

Day 286: The Black Cat (1941) - Rank 2/5

The premise of a black comedy featuring Basil Rathbone and Bela Lugosi was certainly a promising one. In fact, the story of a group of money-hungry relatives preying on the misfortunes of an old woman with the hopes of gaining her inheritance is not a bad one at that. But the execution for this Universal horror flick left something to be desired. The pacing is abominably slow and I found myself stopping the film and coming back to it twice. That's pretty sad when the film's runtime is 69 minutes.

Hell, I won't beat around the bush anymore. I just don't like Hugh Herbert. Sure, I've got a penchant for character actors, especially those with memorable schticks, from Franklin Pangborn's finger tenting to Frank Nelson's trademark "Yeeesssss." But Herbert's "hoo-hoo" laugh and bumbling nature just rubs me the wrong way. He feels like a cheap alternative to Lou Costello. And much to the dismay of many film fans, I will attest that while I love classic wacky comedy, from the Marx Brothers to the Three Stooges, I just don't find Abbot and Costello funny. So, needless to say, it doesn't help for a film to bank the majority of its humor around a comedian whose stylings are reminiscent of a medium that I detest. A Herbert caricature did appear regularly on Looney Tunes shorts, so evidently he was popular for some unearthly reason.