Peeping Tom

Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)

Famously released in the same year that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, Michael Powell’s first film without Emeric Pressburger since the 1940’s divided critics and audiences for his subject matter and the treatment of it all. After Peeping Tom, Powell never been able to work again in England. He shocked audiences and his reputation got tarnished. However, with the help of many respected directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, for whom Powell worked at his Gulf+Western company, Powell regained his reputation and he is considered as one of the greatest filmmaker to have ever worked in Cinema.

Peeping Tom is the name of voyeurs taken from the legend of Lady Godiva where a man named Tom watched the lady during her nude ride and he was struck blind or dead. The voyeur in the movie here is Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) a low voiced shy photograph and cameraman who never goes out of his home without his crosshair handheld movie camera. The film opens with the cameraman’s point of view of the encounter with a prostitute that quickly turns to the final moments of her life in front of the camera. We easily understand that Mark gets a kick out at filming the final moments of those poor women that he kills with the leg of his camera’s tripod obviously representing a phallic symbol in full erection. From Mark’s relationship with the downstairs neighbour Helen (Anna Massey), the only woman he cares for, we understand that Mark isn’t really experienced with women and that the murders are psychosexual symbols of the transfer of his sexual needs.

Powell’s filmmaking here isn’t the fact that he established the pattern of the serial killer films to come, it is the fact that, like Hitchcock, he puts the audience in the killer’s seat and he makes us “feel” or react to the horror of the crude images and the terror of the murdered women. In some way, the viewer or the voyeur enters in Mark’s mind and is represented in the idea that as the audience we always want to see more and be the witnesses of the most sensational images and Powell proves it right here. He analyzes our envy for the most realistic emotions captured on the big screen and to actually watch people live and die, in this case, in front of our eyes. The popularity of reality television proved Powell’s theory to be right. What probably shocked the most with Peeping Tom is the way the audience is involved and how the reactions of the women are presented. In the theatre with all are in the dark just like Mark and observing the screen with our complete attention to every detail and action displayed.

With Peeping Tom, Michael Powell forces us to reconsider our and undertake the implication of the images we encounter in our films. It translates our voyeuristic needs into a mass appeal of the visual medias. An essential film that might divide cinephiles but that will create reactions for sure.

House (1977)

House aka Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977)

A little late for Halloween but who cares... House is still a must see film a day you are seing it doesn't really care... It ain't no Christmas movie and that's for sure. College is over for the summer and the girls are happy to go on vacation. But Gorgeous's dad is going in vacation with his new mistress abandoning Gorgeous for the summer. She decides to ask her aunt to stay at her house with her girlfriends. At the aunt's mansion the girls will meet the aunt and many extravagant experiences.

The first part of the film is unsettling, because it's shot with saturated colors and innocent girlish scenes that do not prevent from the madness that will follow. The tone of the film is so candy eye-popping that it kinda felt like you are watching a fairytale. Moreover, many elements of the plot tend to let you think that you are actually watching a fairytale. The stepmother that "steals" Gorgeous's place with her father that felt like an Oedipus Rex complex.
Another element of the plot, the coming of age of the girl as a woman, first represented with the outfits of college girls and later the woman clothes and then the many parts of naked women representing the passage to adulthood. And finally the loads of blood representing the menstruations of the young women depicted. The aunt represents how the older woman that can no longer have children and must destroy her younger opponents to conquer men. The white cat probably reprensents evil itself.
The visual treatment of the film is probably the one thing that betrays it. The effects are outdated and the flamboyant-saturated images reflects the late 1970's. Althought, it gives dynamic images of constant movement. After a while instead of preventing the viewer to get bored, it annoys him because he doen't has the time to fully appreciate the "mise-en-scène".
An issue that annoyed me was the fact that some girls disappear and they are forgotten in the story, as if we were jumping over those details of the movie.

In the whole, this is exhuberant film deserves to be watched by every Horror film lover out there. It is fresh, unique and tells a lot about horror story telling even if it has some flaws...

Poltergeist (1982)

Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)

The storyline is very usual, a cute American family is haunted by ghosts and the hauntings become more and more violent each time. From a story by Steven Spielberg and directed by horror mastercafter Tobe Hooper Poltergeist is one of the cult Horror films of Cinema.

Ghost stories must interpel the viewer and the catharsis (identification of the public with the main characters) must be at its high. Well, here you have the most universal kind of human cell available: the family. Everything to help the catharsis. Moreover, there are no known actors in Poltergeist, a strategy Producer Spielberg wil re-use in his Jurassic Park, (there are known actors in J.P. but no big stars...).

On the side of the subplot of the story there are many interest links to make. First the depiction of the suburb, typically American (helping once again the catharsis) but here we'll discuss about how its expansion from the big megalopoles of the last thirty years have never stopped. The ever growing suburbs of America has been somewhat of a problem to the urbanists that tried to figure otu how to structure them but moreover how to make them living entities of their own. Since the 1950's, the working class has been having more and more money to spent on cars and bigger houses to extract them from the working ares, the cities and establish their family on the surrounding areas of these cities. Our main character, the father Steve Freeling, is the best representant of the Establishment that sold the houses of this entire suburb... Poltergeist is in sort of a critic of this kind of major land where every house looks like the next one and where every street looks like the other.
The fact that the suburb is situated on an ancient cemetary dramatically figures that for the profit big companies are ready to do any outrage to culture or the eternal rest of some poor deceased...

Another well used topic is the use of children in a ghost story. The public is easily convinceable that there are ghosts around when children are the first to see them; remember as a child how you were afraid of a strange form made by some shadow in the corner of the room, or by the twisted branch of a tree you could see by your window... Childish fears felt by kids on the screen are more believable and contribute to the so talk catharsis of the story telling.

Tobe Hooper was well advised and many Spielberg subjects are present in the story. This could have easily have been a film directed by Spielberg. But, Hooper is a better horror oriented director than Steven Spielberg who liked to play with alien instead of trying to frighten little girls... Of the so few Ghosts flicks I've seen Poltergeist is maybe one of the best around. Probably the most efficient!

Dracula (1931)

TSPDT Greatest Films #835 Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)


From one of the best director of Horror films, Tod Browning, the greatest horror novel of all time comes alive with the best impersonnator of the greatest vampire!

The story, if you haven't seen it or read it already, tells how the count Dracula moves from his home castle in Transylvania to London to breed on fresh blood and young victims. He seems to have a sort of taste for young women. The interpretations of this book are wide and some are very personal or extravagant. My view on it is that the count Dracula is the tempation, evil, well the devil himself. He represents the beast that wants to fornicate with the young women and spoiled them. They seem to fall under his charm when they discover the charm of the flesh (love). The fangs that penetrate the necks of his victims are the symbolization of the phallic penetrating the victims.

The problem for some people with this theory is that Dracula has male victims too. Well, how choking evil was it to have homo-erotic symbols in the time Dracula was written or even in 1931? Dracula symbolizes the immorality of the joys of flesh and the dark side of every human being: if you get Dracula's bite everyone can get his urges to feed on "blood"!

Tod Browning's adaptation is well executed and maintains the core of Bram Stocker's story but compared to Nosferatu (Murnau 1922, Herzog 1978) Horror of Dracula (Terrence Fisher, 1958) and even Coppola's cheesy Bram Stocker's Dracula it handles the road only because of the prensence of Bela Lugosi. For most, he is Dracula and even him thought he was him for a while in his life... But comparion is good the determine which movie is better than the other. However, on every level, especially Karl Freund's photography, Tod Browning's Dracula is a must see!


A review by Michaël Parent

The right one is in!

Lat den ratte komma in aka Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)


With great expectations I bought Let The Right One In. Shortly after that I watch it with a little stress of liking it or hating it: when there's a big hype about a film I often avoid to see it, example I haven't seen Avatar yet nor Titanic... So the hype around LTROI was probably positive in the way that I love foreign films but I hate the term foreign film that determinates everything that is not American and/or English spoken. For now on, I will write about International films and you will never see the term foreign film here again.

Set somewhere in the 1980's, Oskar, a boy of about 12-13 years old is lonely and reads a lot. He gets picked on by other guys in his class. Their picking is very rude and Oskar feels miserable about it. One night he meets Eli who just moved next door to him. She is a girl of his age and she is very mysterious. They will become friends and Eli will help Oskar to get his pride back and have confidence. The fact that everyone knows: Eli is a vampire is not the turning point of the film, her life is not that simple and both will help the other to get on with their lives. Like many Horror films, Let The Right One In is about the teenage years of life and how our body and our minds changes. This is a film that is a lot more than just a vampire story.

Like I've read a lot when it came out I think every Twilight enthousiast should see Let the Right One In before watching another chapter of this "vampire" saga...


A review by Michaël Parent

May the original Mummy rise!

The Mummy (Karl Freund, 1932)



One of the best grossing movie genre is the Horror that always been popular and still is today. With more movies made and with many budgets and different levels of quality, Horror has been one of the most inventive genre in Cinema. Especially when you look at the films of the 1930's: Dracula, Frankenstein, The Unknown, Freaks, Wolfman, etc. Many, if not all, of these titles diserved remake(s). The Mummy is one of them, even if the story is completely different and that some dramatic scenes of the 1932 release may seem more hilarious than very frightening there are many aspect that are worth the look.

First of all, Boris Karloff's performance is haunting and just the way he walks gives the chills. There's a lot of sexual elements in The Mummy and in 1932 the Hays Code was not adopted. You just have to see Zita Johann's wardrobe at the final scene with Imhotep! Even today this dress could be regarded as very sexy. Egyptology always passionate the Occident but in the 1930's it was in vogue so the producers took this opportunity to insert some reconstitutions of the Ancient Egypt. Two years later Claudette Colbert will be doing Cleopatra in the film of the same name by the master of grand entertainment; Cecil B. DeMille.

As some people that knows me very well I'm not the biggest fan of Horror movies but I can't resist a classic Horror film like The Mummy. Be aware that this is not a film to get scare or to see gore but it's a classic and I define it as a little gem of American film History.

A review by Michaël Parent

Antichrist

J'avais beaucoup d'attentes vis-à-vis de ce film car ayant lu plusieurs critiques négatives et quelques unes positives je voulais me faire ma propre idée du dernier film que Lars von Trier nous a concocté. Ayant seulement vu ses films les plus connus; Dancer in the Dark et Dogville, je pense que ces films démontrent tout le talent de ce créateur hors normes. Dancer in the Dark est un véritable chef d'oeuvre et Dogville une expérience intéressante mais dont on se lasse rapidement.

Pour me faire encore plus languir, Antichrist était précédé d'un court métrage de Pedro Pires intitulé Danse Macabre. En plus, le commis au comptoir qui me donna mon billet me demanda si j'étais prêt mentalement pour le programme principal. Bref, tout pour me rendre encore plus fébrile à l'expérience cinématographique qu'est Antichrist. Dans une salle du Cinéma Le Clap ou se trouvaient environ une vingtaine de cinéphiles venus voir un von Trier, l'atmosphère était mélangée entre l'excitation et la peur.

Un magnifique prologue tourné en noir et blanc et au ralenti met en contexte le spectateur qui ne peut rester insensible au décès du fils du couple pendant leurs ébats sexuels. Pour passer au travers de la dépression de la femme, le couple part dans un chalet dans la forêt pour une thérapie donnée par l'homme. Là tout s'enfonce peu à peu et dégénère complètement. À part l'épilogue, le reste du film est tourné en numérique et à l'épaule selon le Dogme 95 élaboré par von Trier. Cette technique donne un grain à l'image qui peut être très agaçant et qui lui donne une apparence d'amateurisme et d'un autre côté de réalisme. L'idée de départ du film est très intéressante et est une bonne matière à travailler pour von Trier qui tombe rarement dans des thèmes faciles. On peut lui donner ce grand point positif; il ne se complaît pas dans la facilité.

Cependant, il prend toutes les voies pour provoquer, de la sexualité explicite aux des violences sadiques et jusqu'à utiliser un symbolisme outrageant. Il provoque son auditoire, et ce, pour nourrir son propre ego de prétention. D'une part, il laisse sa propre marque et son style un peu comme un certain Quentin Tarantino avec son excellent Inglorious Basterds. Lorsque le film se termine, on y voit une dédicace pour Andrei Tarkovsky qui s'avère assez douteuse. Je m'explique; étant un admirateur du travail du poète visuel qui nous a laissé trop peu de films et qui s'est même permis un dialogue avec le 2001; A Space Odyssey de Stanley Kubrick et qui n'a rien à lui envier est dans les meilleurs cinéastes de tous les temps. On peut considérer les films de Tarkovsky comme des films contemplatifs et religieux. Ce dernier a toujours su faire des films esthétiquement parfaits et complets remplis d'une imagerie magnifique. Pour ce qui est de von Trier on est loin de la contemplation et encore plus loin d'un esthétisme agréable, et ce, surtout pour son Antichrist. Il quitte sa trame principale et s'enfonce dans le symbolisme religieux et dans la vulgarité. Il torture ses personnages et tout autant son auditoire (qui se verra diminué de la moitié durant la séance).

C'est un film qui a fait couler beaucoup d'encre et qui choque par son contenu et sa lourdeur. Il détient probablement son titre de film culte un peu comme le Salo de Pasolini mais pas pour les bonnes raisons. Von Trier loin d'être un poète visuel tel que Tarkovsky qui malgré sa maîtrise des éléments des trois mendiants et de la descente intéressante dans la folie de l'humain propose ici un efficace film d'épouvante mais un faible film sur le deuil et la perte. En regardant ce film comme étant un film d'épouvante, je lui reconnaît plus de qualités car il inculque la peur et le dégoût à son auditoire. La peur est provoqué par les choses que l'on ne comprend pas et qui nous sont nébuleuses et pour ma part c'est ce que j'ai ressenti en allant voir ce film. Il y a trop d'éléments nébuleux dans ce récit et trop peu d'explications.

7.6

Black Sunday aka The Mask of the Devil de Mario Bava – Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon

TSPDT Greatest Films #726 Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)


Voici ma troisième et dernière intervention pour le Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon du Blogue Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies de mon compatriote Kevin J. Olson. L’un des plus grands films d’épouvante de l’histoire ! Disponible sur YouTube en passant, le Black Sunday de Mario Bava réalisé en 1960 vous sera présenté dans ce tour du chapeau au Blog-A-Thon. Débutant comme nul autre film n’a su imprégner la face de l’horreur à son auditoire, Black Sunday nous présente une sorcière et son frère sorcier qui sont condamnés pour sorcellerie. On leur met un masque représentant le visage du diable orné à l’intérieur de clous qui entrent dans la peau di visage des victimes à l’aide d’un bon coup de masse sur le masque… Cependant, la sorcière jette un sort sur ses tortionnaires et elle leur jure qu’elle se vengera.

Là commence le générique d’ouverture, l’histoire se situe deux cent ans après cet épisode lorsque deux professeurs passent en calèche près de l’endroit où la sorcière est enterrée. L’un des deux professeurs étant trop curieux retire le masque du diable qui recouvrait le visage de la sorcière et découvre que celui-ci n’a pas été ravagé par la putréfaction et le temps. C’est à cet instant que la malédiction de la sorcière commence son cours.

Mélangeant le récit de sorcière et l’histoire classique du vampire qui se réveille et fait plusieurs victimes, ce film présente une histoire crédible des plus intéressantes. Le travail de réalisation de Bava est remarquable et il peut facilement se frotter aux films de grande qualité issus du studio britannique Hammer Films dont l’excellent Horror of Dracula de Terence Fisher sorti la même année.

Les interprètes sont très bons et mention plus qu’honorable à Barbara Steele qui joue un double rôle soit celui de la sorcière et celui de la jeune victime innocente. Elle réussie parfaitement à instaurer le mal dans son regard ainsi que l’innocence pour son double rôle.

Des trois films italiens observés pour ce Blog-A-Thon c’est le film le plus classique du genre film d’épouvante. C’est-à-dire, on est dans les thèmes de la sorcellerie et du vampirisme en même temps et sans être forcé du tout !

Here’s my third and last post for the Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon at Kevin J. Olson’s Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies. It’s about one of the greatest horror film ever! -By the way, available through the almighty YouTube - Will be observed here, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday of 1960. With a beginning like no other film, Bava knows how to create an atmosphere of pure horror. As an introduction, we see a witch and her sorcerer brother condemned for sorcery. As their punishment, the inquisitors nail the mask of the demon on their faces till their death! Meanwhile, the witch throws a curse of vengeance for herself.

Then the beginning credits appear, the story is set two hundred years after the prologue. Two professors stop by the chapel where the witch is buried because their coach got stuck. They discover her coffin and they pull off the mask of the demon to find her face intact without any sign of time or putrefaction. This unclenches the curse of the witch.

With the story of the witch and the classic vampire story, Bava presents a great blend of the two genres. The production is even better than some Hollywoodian films of the time and the direction is inspired and strong. This film can be compared for its quality and with no shame to Terence Fisher’s Horror of Dracula from the Hammer Films studios.

The actors are amazing and especially Barbara Steele who plays two characters; the witch, where pure evil can be seen in her eyes, and the young innocent victim.

Of the three films I’ve reviewed for this Blog-A-Thon, this one’s the most classic in the horror genre. The film is inspired by the themes of sorcery and vampirism without any gore effects or lakes of blood… But, it’s a must see for any horror film fan!

Merci YouTube!!! Part VII

Black Sunday aka La maschera del demonio aka Mask of the Demon de Mario Bava (1960)

Dans cette série ayant pour but de filtrer les millions de vidéos et films disponibles sur le géant YouTube je vous présente aujourd'hui un très grand film d'horreur italien; Black Sunday de Mario Bava! Un véritable film culte des fanatiques du film d'épouvante qui se veut encore plus efficace que bien des productions hollywoodiennes.
Une critique de ce film suivra cette présentation dans le cadre du Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon du Blogue Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies.

With this presentation of films available on YouTube I present to you today one of the greatest italian horror movies; Black Sunday by Mario Bava made in 1960. A great cult film for the horror movie buffs. Black Sunday is heavier than the majority of the hollywoodian productions of horror films!
I'll soon post a review of this film for the Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon at Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies.

Zombi 2 de Lucio Fulci - Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon

Zombie 2: The Dead Are Among Us (1979)
Se voulant une suite ou selon moi un hommage au Night of the Living Dead et au Dawn of the Dead de George A. Romero. Zombi 2 de Lucio Fulci se veut un film beaucoup plus faible et digne d'un moindre intérêt que ses prédécesseurs. Surtout reconnu pour ses effets spéciaux d'hémoglobine, Fulci livre un récit servant à la mise en scène de situations se prêtant pour l'utilisation de faux sang et de faux membres. Il va jusqu'à confronter un requin à un zombie qui veulent tous les deux s'approprier une proie de choix; soit une femme se baignant nue...
Cependant, la qualité de ses effets spéciaux est très vétuste même pour l'époque et manque d'intérêt pour le passionné d'effets gore réussis. Pour l'amateur du film de zombie il y a là quelque chose à se mettre sous la dent mais il devrait aussi se tourner vers des classiques plus intéressants comme les films de George A Romero et du compatriote italien Dario Argento.

Suspiria de Dario Argento – Italian Horror Blog-A-Thon

Ma première intervention pour le Blog-A-Thon sur le cinéma d’horreur italien portera sur le film qui représente probablement le mieux cette sous catégorie du film d’épouvante.

Tourné en 1977 et largement inspiré par le travail d’Alfred Hitchcock, Suspiria est le film le plus populaire et le plus apprécié de Dario Argento. Ce dernier étant reconnu pour ces nombreux films d’horreurs de qualité variable. Le maître de l’horreur italien a eu tendance à se répéter dans sa carrière tout en faisant preuve d’une grande maîtrise de la construction de l’image. À part la réalisation est il est coauteur du scénario du chef-d’œuvre de Sergio Leone avec Bernardo Bertolucci. De plus, fait anodin c’est le père de la sous-estimée actrice Asia Argento.

Suspiria c’est le récit de Suzy Banyon, une jeune américaine, qui vient se joindre à une école européenne prestigieuse de ballet. Une série d’incident bizarres et de meurtres vont mener Suzy à y découvrir repaire d’une sorcière qui était à l’origine des étranges agissements dans l’école. Bien qu’assez simpliste comme histoire, (c’est plutôt rare que l’on a une histoire très fignolée dans le film d’épouvante) le récit coule assez bien malgré certaines scènes forcées pour le bien de l’épouvante.

La force d’Argento est de présenter l’horreur de manière stylisée artistiquement. Bien que plusieurs scènes soient d’une grande cruauté il est difficile de détourner le regard car on pourrait y manquer les finesses de la mise en scène. La construction de chaque image pour chacun des meurtres a été pensée soigneusement et une excellente utilisation de la photographie est à souligner.

Du côté du récit, le thème de la jeune fille qui devient une femme et qui doit surpasser ses craintes vis-à-vis de l’inconnu et des nouvelles réalités de sa vie est abordé sans être le thème central autant que le The Exorcist de William Friedkin. Dans le cas de Suspiria, le second degré est rapidement laissé de côté pour que l’horreur prenne toute la place !

Bref, un incontournable de l’horreur et selon plusieurs le chef d’œuvre de Dario Argento!