From IMDB- ‘During World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.’ Well, this is quite the film. It has a huge emotional pull, amazing performances (Timothy …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 28- Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
In this 1971 pseudo-documentary by British filmmaker Peter Watkins, new prisoners are given a choice when all US prisons are full. They can either choose prison time or three days in punishment park where they must trek 50 miles in that time in punishing heat whilst the relevant authorities try to hunt them. Water and …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 23- Punishment Park (1971)
Stan Brakhage’s 32-minute film is soundless footage captured during autopsies in a Pittsburgh morgue. The film’s title is a literal meaning of the word ‘autopsy’. Obviously, don’t watch this whilst eating a meal (the first time I watched The Exorcist was whilst eating an evening meal with my dad. But that, as they say, is …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 22- The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes (1971)
I remember the first time I ever saw any scenes from The Brood was in the excellent documentary, Terror in the Aisles. I then went on to see the film from start to finish in a Film Studies lecture at university. There's a sinister institution within The Brood that's called The Somafree Institute of Psychoplasmatics. …
John and Laura Baxter travel to Venice following the death of their daughter in a pond outside their home. John has taken a job there restoring a church. Whilst in a restaurant, Laura meets two sisters, one of whom is blind but has the gift of second sight and can speak with the dead. She …
Continue reading Shocking Cinema- Day 16- Don’t Look Now (1973)
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 …
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 …
Young college students take rooms in a spooky old house whose live-in owners seem just as spooky. I’ve seen so many horror films that I had to check to see if I had actually seen Silent Scream. I hadn’t so here goes. I was pleasantly surprised as this was perfect fare for a night when …
The sequel to George A Romero’s Night of the Living Dead shows that the zombie epidemic has gotten much worse and society is on its knees. Two television workers plan to escape with two SWAT team members in the TV station traffic helicopter in search of…whatever they can find that’s better than their current situation. …
Continue reading George A Romero Reviewed- Day 7- Dawn of the Dead (1978)
