The October Ordeal day #4b: The Evictors

Charles B. Pierce's films are legitimately nightmarish: Feverish, amoral, distancing, familiar but somehow "wrong". The strategies and habits of classical Hollywood cinema are present, only perverted and submerged. This one ditches the faux- documentary style of his best-known work but is equally rusted and presentational. While Pierce doesn't want anything from the viewer, The Evictors demands careful attention and concentration.

Gorgeous wide-lensed compositions create plenty of space for folks to live in. The print on Netflix Watch Instantly is substantially faded but it's a diffuse film anyway, thanks to Pierce's signature meticulous repurposing of natural light. Seeing Jessica Harper, Michael Parks and Vic Morrow work in various configurations is a privilege. Has anybody even written anything comparing Pierce to Terrence Malick? I could throw my homework in the trash and watch this ten times. A fell universe.

Halfway decent, but not much more.

[C-/C]

I'd prefer an audiobook of this as read by Michael Parks; it's no wonder Tarantino loves the guy, his line readings steal every scene he's in. As for the film, it's dull and predictable, but Pierce does capture the South with an evocative texture that rings true.

Review for the White Elephant Blog-a-Thon coming next week.

I love this film! The story is awesome, the 1940's atmosphere is outstanding, there are truly scary scenes and it has a very good twist that you really don't see coming. Charles B. Pierce really got overlooked in the late 70's with his two near perfect horror films "The town that dreaded sundown" and this one.

The October Ordeal day #4b: The Evictors

Charles B. Pierce's films are legitimately nightmarish: Feverish, amoral, distancing, familiar but somehow "wrong". The strategies and habits of classical Hollywood cinema are present, only perverted and submerged. This one ditches the faux- documentary style of his best-known work but is equally rusted and presentational. While Pierce doesn't want anything from the viewer, The Evictors demands careful attention and concentration.

Gorgeous wide-lensed compositions create plenty of space for folks to live in. The print on Netflix Watch Instantly is substantially faded but it's a diffuse film anyway, thanks to Pierce's signature meticulous repurposing of natural light. Seeing Jessica Harper, Michael Parks and Vic Morrow work in various configurations is a privilege. Has anybody even written anything comparing Pierce to Terrence Malick? I could throw my homework in the trash and watch this ten times. A fell universe.

Interesting effort from Charles B. Pierce that sort of brings together Old Dark House tropes with some modern nods to Halloween and Psycho thrown in for good measure. If you enjoyed Pierce's The Town that Dreaded Sundown, this would be right up your alley, with the supposed based-on-fact tale including plenty of low-budget backwoods atmosphere, classic cars, and a cast that boasts genre fan favorites Jessica Harper and Michael Parks.

wow I really couldn't decide what this movie was trying to be. A slasher? A period piece drama? A turd? All 3? yeaaahhh that's it! All 3. The poster artwork for this has had me interested for years and now that Netflix is streaming it I finally got to take a look. For horror completists only, as calling it a horror film is a huge stretch. After posting this and going to look at other reviews for it I am now back and giving it an additional half star cause maybe I was just in the wrong frame of mind for watching it. Hell the majority of the reviews for it on here are 3 stars!!

This movie really surprised me at how suspenseful it managed to be. It's a very heavy 3.5 stars, maybe a 4. I would not be opposed to a re-watch.