Posted by John Zulovitz on November 04, 2000 at 15:51:16:
Jerry:
Great choices. I'm with you on the Roeg picture. "The Innocents," as well; of course, everything there hinged on Ms. Kerr's performance, and she came through spendidly. One that I was thinking of after I spoke with you the other evening was Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage." Have you seen it? One can't beat it for atmosphere. I think if Dali and Cocteau had both done "Beauty and the Beast," the result might have been something like Franju's dreary, droll, black-&-white paean to Beauty, Theology, and Pyschosexual longing. Not bad, that one. For pure shock value, I'd also mention Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" (aka "Stranger in the House"), a Canadian-made creepie about a madman stalking a sorority. Have a little "gruel" with your "yule." It predates many of the "slasher" pics of the seventies, focuses more on nuance than actual gore, and has Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder (she's side-splittingly vulgar here -- Mere acting or reacting? You decide) to boot.
For top frights, though, I must stick with George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" -- the ultimate black comedy about American consumerism. I mean, what could be more outlandish than people actually "consuming" each other? While not what one would necessarily call a "jump-out-of-your-seat" shock picture, it starts slowly, strangely, then locks you in to a world that is claustrophobic, numbing, and, finally, "dead." Some nice touches: When everything else societal fails, a coffee machine still manages to produce a fresh steaming cup of java; while one character is making herself up in a cosmetics store, an intercut reveals a mannequin's head that eerily resembles the final, living, breathing product; and, of course, the blood -- bright, garish, gouting buckets of it, colored in a heightened manner that reflects the utopian artificiality of the mall itself. And hey, there's even a pie fight. By the end, only two people survive, and seek flight (literally) into a bland dawn that promises nothing but more of that which they are trying flee. (Note: Originally, everyone was to die in this picture, the last two characters by suicide, but the effects weren't credible enough and Romero let them get away.) If you're looking for a picture that just descends on you, then proceeds to tighten the wires, you can't do better.
Honorable mentions:
"Night of the Living Dead" (1968 version)
"Burnt Offerings"
"Nosferatu" (Murnau)
"The Haunting" (Wise)
"Play Misty for Me"
"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (not half as gory as you'd think)
"Psycho" (Though "Frenzy" and "The Birds" are worth noting, too)
"The Tenant" (One of the best scenes of laughter-scream-laughter-scream-laughter-scream ever!)
"An American Werewolf in London" (If ever I get to London, I'll keep to the road and avoid the Tube, thank you very much)
"Jaws" (Excellent direction -- you make me fear something as mundane as a yellow barrel then I figure you've done your job)
See you later.
John