Week #2 of History of Horror: Universal Monsters; essay
Son of Frankenstein is the third film within Universal's 1930s series, the last to star Karloff as the monster and the first without James Whale in the directors seat. It is also the first to star Bela Lugosi in the Ygor role, a role he would reprise in The Ghost of Frankenstein before moving up to playing the monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
It's important to point out Lugosi's role…
Week #1 of History of Horror: Silent Horror Films; essay
The Unknown is an early Tod Browning film, featuring Lon Chaney in the role of Alonzo the Armless, a criminal who hides his distinctive double-thumb deformity by working in a traveling circus as an armless knife thrower. Throughout the film, the illusion that Chaney is using his legs to open doors, smoke cigarettes, and throw knifes is accomplished by having Paul Desmuke, armless in real-life, play the role of Chaney's…
Nocturnal Animals is the kind of film I need on blu-ray. I want to watch it several times and unlock all the hidden meanings within each scene.
From the opening images, which leave the viewer on guard, unsure of what will follow, all the way to a understated, devastating ending, Nocturnal Animals was thoroughly captivating.
The film gives the illusion of two narrative threads, the book within the film, and the reality of the film world; however, it is an illusion - there is only one thread: the pain that can arise out of human existence.
Noirvember film #23
M is something more interesting than a noir film: it is a proto-noir film. Predating the noir movement by nine years and spawning out of Germany rather than America, calling M a noir film would be a lie. However, the primary directors of the noir movement - to call it a movement, is really a lie - were German filmmakers come to America to escape the war, so to find the roots of the genre in German…
