More than a handful of muffled cries of "problematic(!)" buried between the lines of chitchat amongst theater patrons exiting the New Beverly matinee today didn't seem to stop me from guiltily deriving pleasure from what must have stuck out even in '67 as having a strangely comedic take on the violent carnal situations favored by our lead, James Coburn. His predilection for, as he puts it, "assaults with a friendly weapon" are of much amusement to even the town Sheriff,…

It's probably fortuitous that this releases right after Twin Peaks has Returned, so that hopefully a portion of the audience is primed for something slowly paced with gorgeous, haunting shots in an eerie forest setting. A modest scale/scope for this picture, and lack of initial context, helps keeps the focus on tense character moments and atmosphere building. There are a few extremely telegraphed jump scares that still manage to be effective due to sheer loudness, and several parallel character dynamics…