So much for film theory claiming that the knife in slasher films represents a phallic object - here Brian De Palma uses a great big fucking drill! And in case you didn't quite get the reference, we even get a shot of the killer murderously using the drill between his legs. I wonder what De Palma is trying to say?! The film takes obvious influence from Hitchcock (notably Vertigo and Rear Window) but less talked about is the clear Argento…
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Double Indemnity 1944
For my money, this is the greatest film noir ever made. The story is set in motion with a clever metaphor - a car running through a stop sign. This leads to a hard boiled story of murder and deception. The way the film is set up instills a sense of foreboding over every sequence - it's brilliant storytelling, steeped in dramatic irony. The direction courtesy of the great Billy Wilder is absolutely flawless - and matched by an intelligent…
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M. Butterfly 1993
David Cronenberg's film adaptation of David Henry Hwang's play; itself entwined with the opera Madame Butterfly. The film depicts a relationship between a French diplomat and a beautiful opera singer. It's a relationship apparently based on love, but actually based on lies. The film is deliberately paced for much of the runtime, despite that it is a truncated version of the stage play. The original plot of Madame Butterfly reaches across the narrative of this film, though many aspects are…
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Primal Fear 1996
A solid crime thriller. Much of the plot is nuts and bolts stuff -arrogant defence attorney, relationship with female prosecutor, an apparently open and shut case...etc. It's all well produced and acted by a stellar cast. The opening murder is suprisingly brutal and this then leads into a courtroom thriller, with Richard Gere's ace attorney representing Edward Norton's accused alter boy against a charge of murder. The plot flows well, with a few twists and turns and the plot thickening…
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Oculus 2013
The "haunted object" is a concept seen many times in cinema before. Oculus and it's tale of a haunted mirror is not exactly original, but it more than makes up for this with some brilliant execution. A narrative split between past and present sees a brother and sister, reunited following his incarceration for apparently killing their father, trying to put a stop to what she believes is the real perpetrator - a huge ornate mirror known as the Lasser Glass.…
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Possession 1981
This film is pure adrenaline on screen. Director Andrzej Zulawski's opus about a fractured couple (apparently based on his own experience of divorce) is rich with metaphor and symbolism. The dream logic means that it doesn't always make perfect sense - but the film is utterly captivating, helped by Andrzej Zulawski's nauseating roaming camera and a pair of brilliant central performances from Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani - the latter of which absolutely owns the film. It's a mesmerising and…
