I thought Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film would be a kind of Japanese Seven, with a taciturn detective pursuing a serial killer, but it turned out to be an existential horror film disguised as a crime movie. The ambiguities of Kurosawa’s spooky script prevent definitive conclusions, which make this powerfully atmospheric story of mesmerism and mutilation all the more disturbing.
Tag Archives: Horror
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
In the small Canadian mining town of Valentine’s Bluff there hasn’t been a Valentine’s dance in twenty years. This batty entry from the golden age of slasher flicks gave its name to the shoegaze band and features an array of standard genre elements including an old crime, a local legend, a gaggle of fatuous youngsters, and sanguinary death by various implements.
Theater of Blood (1973)
Drama nerds will love this loopy horror-comedy starring Vincent Price as a murderous ham actor waging a campaign of revenge against his critics using methods drawn from Shakespeare’s plays. Featuring Diana Rigg, Diana Dors, Jack Hawkins and a slew of notable British actors.
Black Christmas (1974)
This is a surprisingly scary film with Olivia Hussey as a level-headed college student who begins receiving deranged and obscene phone calls. Shortly afterwards, one of her sorority sisters disappears. It soon becomes apparent to the audience that a crazed killer is on the loose. Who could it be? The “high strung” (asshole) artist boyfriend played by Keir Dullea? The drunken bad girl of the house (Margot Kidder)? Or perhaps the impeccably combed-over cop (John Saxon)? You’ll never guess!
analepsis 