Well, it's that time of year again. This week my brother and I watched movies about serial killers.
The only Halloween film I hadn't seen before now, Rob Zombie's sequel is as bizarre as I expected it to be. In many ways I enjoyed it more then the first film as the director was clearly more free to do what he wanted with the material here. The first 10 minutes or so are a retread of the original sequel but after this the film moves firmly into it's own territory. Laurie is now a mental case living with Sheriff Brackett and his daughter while Micheal (presumed dead) has become a wandering tramp. The visions he continues to have of his mother are intriguing and the issue of mental illness is handled with more sensitivity then I expected but ultimately its all a bit pretentious and the contrast between the brutal onscreen slayings and the commentary the film is clearly trying to make about the sensationalization of serial killers only results in cognitive dissonance.
Score: 6/10
2. Psycho (1960)
Alfred Hitchock's all time classic both popularized the serial killer movie and helped to define the slasher genre. It also pushed the boundaries for onscreen violence and sexuality onscreen. In retrospect, as a pious Catholic viewer, I can't help but regret the film's influence on our culture. Nevertheless, Hitchcock's film is undeniably well crafted and, by modern standards, incredibly restrained. Anthony Perkins performance is deservedly legendary and the rest of the cast do a fine job as well, particularly Martin Balsam and Janet Leigh. The script, exploring the terrible price of constructing one's own reality, would be nearly flawless but for the films expository laden coda.
Score: 9/10
One of the better Stephen King adaptations I've watched (though I haven't read the book) Misery is a first rate horror/thriller. Director Rob Reiner (best known for comedies like The Princess Bride and This is Spinal Tap) does a great job building suspense and the script, aided no doubt by King's source material, has a really meta quality to it, exploring the rather uncomfortable relationship a writer (or any artist) often has with obsessive fans. It is also one of the author's more restrained works (which is usually a good thing). Kathy Bates is great as the manic Annie Wilkes, sweet and caring one minute and completely deranged the next while James Caan brings his usual down-to-earth method acting to bear as the weary writer Paul Sheldon.
Score: 9/10
4. Silence of the Lambs (1990)
The only horror film ever to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards, The Silence of the Lambs is best remembered for Anthony Hopkins chilling portrayal of the incarcerated cannibal, Hannibal Lecter but the film is buttressed by fine performances from the entire cast from Jodie Foster to Ted Levine to Scott Glenn. The script wisely focuses in on Foster's agent Starling, who must go toe-to-toe with the larger-than-life Lecter, but it's the film's exploration of the nature of evil and our confrontation with it, along with the riveting direction from Jonathan Demme, that really make the it hold up. Not to be overlooked is the production design by Kristi Zea, with Hannibal's dank, dark cell beneath the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and his cage-like cell in the Tennessee courthouse artfully captured by cinematographer Tak Fujimoto
Score: 10/10
5. Red Dragon (2002)
An adaptation of Thomas Harris' first Hannibal Lecter novel, Red Dragon is rather pedestrian in comparison to Silence. Like that film it features strong performances, Ralph Fiennes is good as the film's titular serial killer, and the always wonderful Emily Watson is great as his blind coworker, Reba McClane. On the other hand Hopkins is never as frightening as he was in the earlier film (and looks a good deal too old and fat) nor does his chemistry with Edward Norton have the same electricity that he had with Foster. Nevertheless, it is a performance driven film featuring rather pedestrian direction from Brett Ratner and a less focused script then it's predecessor (probably because the filmmakers wanted, understandably, to feature Lecter more prominently). In the end, it's a decent enough follow up to an all time classic. Manhunter, an earlier adaptation by Micheal Mann is also worth checking out, and is a more focused and stylistically interesting work.
Score: 8/10
6. Saw (2004)
A sophomoric effort from James Wan, who would go on to helm the Conjuring and Insidious films, Saw has an interesting premise (two men wake up chained to the floor chained a dilapidated bathroom) that is somewhat squandered by the films overly complicated plot. The script, by Leigh Whannell (a frequent collaborator of Wan who has gone on to direct Upgrade (2018) and The Invisible Man (2020)), is the kind that seems to make less sense the more you think about it. Wan's direction shows promise, but is marred by an over-reliance on jump scares and rapid fire editing. The film is at it's best when focusing on Adam and Lawrence (Leigh Whannell and Cary Elwes respectively) as they struggle to discover a way to escape the situation they find themselves in.
Score: 6/10
7. Zodiac (2007)
In many ways the antidote to the other films on this list, Zodiac explores the effect that serial killers can have on the lives of those who pursue them, and reveals how unhealthy our obsession over them is. The film is perfectly cast from Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. obsessed journalists to Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards over-worked detectives. Sticking close to historical fact, it casts a wide net, featuring a cast that also includes Brian Cox, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Elias Koteas and many others and it covers 22 years of history, from the killer's first publicized murder in 1969 to the death of one of the prime suspects. It's effectively helmed by David Fincher (whose work I usually find pretentious) who handles the murders with detached objectivity while imbuing the investigation with a gripping, at times feverish, sense of urgency. A great film.
Score: 10/10
Next week, more Universal Monsters!
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