The Devils takes place in 17th-century France. Father Urbain Grandier is trying to protect the city of Loudun from the evil Cardinal Richelieu but this is threatened by a sexually repressed nun's accusation of witchcraft. The Devils is bonkers filmmaking, and I mean that in the best possible way. It’s frenetic, frenzied and hits a …
American scientist Shane Brown, is with his wife on their honeymoon in Paris but seems more intent on locating his former colleague Léo Semenau and his wife Coré, who hold cannibalistic urges. Apparently this film had a budget of $3.8 million. But it looks like none of these were spent on the film’s opening credits …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 46- Trouble Every Day (2001)
On Christmas Eve, Marc, a singer and performer who plays at old people’s homes finds himself stranded when his van/mobile home breaks down. A creepy innkeeper, still dealing with his wife leaving him, comes to his rescue. Warning- this film is Belgian. They do horror and ‘weird’ very differently from everyone else. The problem I …
A woman with ESP is kept heavily sedated and is held against her will in an isolated commune. I had heard that this film was like marmite- some loved it, some hated it. Things didn’t bode well for it as it was consistently compared to a film I hate- Solaris (the original). But I actually …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 44- Beyond The Black Rainbow (2010)
Superman III had some seriously big boots to fill. Superman: The Movie had a huge budget for its time (a cool $55 million), talented writers (including Mario Puzo) and a cast to die for (Marlon Brando, anyone?) An unknown actor, Christopher Reeve, was cast as the Man of Steel, which was a considerable risk. The …
Continue reading Computers, Comedy and Camp- Making the Case for Superman III (1983)
‘A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his armless mother - the leader of a strange religious cult - and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name as he becomes "her arms".’ Talk about generic plots! This is an Alejandro Jodorowsky film, you know, the man who made El …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 43- Santa Sangre (1989)
More double-crossing now, with twins being perfectly suited for this. This David Cronenberg movie stars Jeremy Irons as twin gynaecologists with one twin, the narcissistic Elliot, seducing and then discarding some of the women who come to their practice with his more submissive and introverted twin Beverly taking over from Elliot in the relationship but …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 42- Dead Ringers (1988)
A film producer survives a car crash but then finds that he was left aroused by the whole experience. He seeks others who are also turned on by these events. Back in 1996, the controversy surrounding this film made headlines in the UK, with calls to ban it before its release (the spirit of Mary …
Claude Lanzmann’s nine-and-a-half-hour documentary on the Holocaust. Survivors, perpetrators and bystanders talk. The sites are shown as they are now. There is no archive footage of the camps in operation. This is the other side of Night and Fog. Resnais used the images so the atrocity could never be downplayed. Lanzmann refuses them. He makes …
In present-day New York, David Moran saves a man who’s just been run over. Later on that day, this event forces David to reminisce about events that occurred in 1958. Meg and her disabled sister Susan are placed in the care of their aunt, Ruth who lives with her sons after their own parents are …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 39- The Girl Next Door (2007)
