Mark Lewis is a focus puller at a film studio who tops up his wages taking glamour photographs in a room above a newsagent. By night he films women as he kills them, chasing a look of pure fear. The habit comes from a childhood spent as his scientist father’s subject. Downstairs live Helen and …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 12- Peeping Tom (1960)
This 1965 Roman Polanski film centres on the character of Carol, a beautiful woman who works at a beauty parlour whilst living with her sister Helen in South Kensington, London. She's very childlike and seems to be not only sexually repressed but actually repulsed by men. Matters aren’t helped by a persistent young man called …
The blurb- ‘A brilliant yet tortured plastic surgeon creates a type of synthetic skin which is resistant to any damage. But his guinea pig is a mysterious woman who holds the key to his past and obsessions.’ For this movie, director Pedro Almodóvar said he wanted to create a ‘horror story without screams or frights’. …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 10- The Skin I Live In (2011)
An all-female group of scientists investigate a ‘shimmer’, a zone created when a meteor hits the earth which has a mutating effect on vegetation and animals within. This is an interesting plot which, unfortunately, feels like it’s been completely wasted. Unlikeable characters (all different but not one who I could empathise with), bad CGI which …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 9- Annihilation (2018)
A young woman has her life (and her new home) turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger. Well, the events in this film escalate quickly. I love that things can go from 0-60 in a breath. There’s also a gorgeous look to the film which looks like every individual frame has been hand …
A very religious policeman (Edward ‘Equalizer’ Woodward) arrives at the Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a child, Rowan Morrison. Whilst he makes enquiries regarding the missing child he witnesses first-hand the pagan lifestyles of the inhabitants which shock him and clash severely with his staunchly Christian and somewhat puritanical beliefs. I …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 7- The Wicker Man (1973)
An unstable children’s author finds the hallucinations that engulf her life are becoming out of control as she stays in her vacation home. What is fact and what is fiction? I had never heard of Images before and was surprised to discover that it was directed by Robert Altman. An impressive cast is led by …
From IMDB- ‘A jazz musician who suspects his wife of infidelity gets framed for her murder. However, after he is sent to prison, he changes his identity and leads a new life as a car mechanic.’ This is a David Lynch movie and so expect the unexpected. Sometimes even trying to write a synopsis for …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 5- Lost Highway (1997)
A young man rents an apartment after the previous tenant takes her own life. But he quickly finds that others are trying to mould him in her image and that his identity is starting to converge with hers. This was the last film in Polanski’s apartment trilogy (the others being Rosemary’s Baby and Repulsion). Polanski …
A young couple move from France to an isolated villa in Romania. This proves to be a bad move though as things quickly take a turn for the worse as they find themselves under attack. Beautifully photographed, brilliantly directed (loving the POV shots that place you in the shoes of the protagonists), Them (released as …
Meathook Cinema 