Val Lewton’s The Seventh Victim is one of those films that has all the ingredients for greatness, an eerie premise, shadow-drenched cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, and a mystery steeped in paranoia, yet somehow manages to feel oddly inert. At just 71 minutes, it should move like a sharp little shocker, but instead it wanders, circling…
Tag: drama
Duel (1971) – Review
Before Jaws, before Jurassic Park, before Spielberg was the patron saint of summer blockbusters, he made a film that proved you don’t need a giant shark or prehistoric monsters to terrify an audience, all you need is a faceless truck, a stretch of desert highway, and the nerve to keep the camera rolling as it…
Belladonna of Sadness (1973) – Review
To call Belladonna of Sadness a “movie” feels like calling a cathedral a “building.” It’s a hallucination stretched across 93 minutes. It’s what happens when you paint a nightmare in watercolours and then set it on fire. And yet, despite its hypnotic beauty, this is not an easy watch, nor should it be. At its…
Sisters in Leather (1969) – Review
This gloriously low-budget, high-kink flick zooms right out of the 1960s underground scene like a Harley with no brakes and even less plot. Clocking in at just over an hour (mercifully?), it plays like a fever dream someone had after watching Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! while half-asleep on a shag rug.
Wolf (1994) – Review
In 1994, director Mike Nichols gave us one of those wild movies that threw together big stars, a dose of supernatural intrigue, and a generous splash of thriller drama, all while taking itself just a little too seriously. To be fair, the werewolf has always been the ugly stepchild of the horror genre, so maybe…