Recent Movie Viewing Pleasure
I watched a few horror movies via Netflix over the last few days; The Legend of Hell House (1973), Let the Right One In (Swedish version) and The Last House on the Left (original version from 1972).
I’d seen The Legend of Hell House a long time ago, and had forgotten much of it. It’s beautifully shot, and has decent acting, especially from Roddy McDowall. I found the ending, where it reveals the source of the goings-on, to be truly creepy.
Last House on the Left was Wes Craven’s directorial debut. Much of it seems rather amateurish, and parts of it are very disturbing (which was the intention.) Not sure how I feel about this one. It’s your basic revenge film, but the doings of the bad guys seem to be filmed with such glee, I felt like the director was being a tad over-indulgent. It could be argued that he was showing how incredibly awful the villains were in order to make the revenge parts that much sweeter, but it almost felt like the filmmakers were enjoying the torture scenes a little too much. I’d contrast it with the torture/ear scene in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs – while that particular scene was very disturbing, it seemed to really work in the context of that particular movie.
Of the three movies, my favorite by far was Let the Right One In. I found this to be a wonderful, refreshingly original movie, especially for a vampire flick. It takes place around Stockholm, Sweden, during the winter, and the settings are all very bland and cold – except there is almost always some red object in the scene, which makes a cool and deliberate contrast to all the whiteness. All of the characters were portrayed very realistically – even the bullies who antagonize the main character. The young actors playing the two main characters, both twelve years old (although one, as she says, has been twelve for a very long time) were wonderful. The horror in this movie comes mainly from the (non-vampire) bullies. While the vampire in the movie is certainly capable of horrific deeds, she’s also very sympathetic. And the scene in the pool near the end of the movie is brilliant! Highly recommended.
I’d seen The Legend of Hell House a long time ago, and had forgotten much of it. It’s beautifully shot, and has decent acting, especially from Roddy McDowall. I found the ending, where it reveals the source of the goings-on, to be truly creepy.
Last House on the Left was Wes Craven’s directorial debut. Much of it seems rather amateurish, and parts of it are very disturbing (which was the intention.) Not sure how I feel about this one. It’s your basic revenge film, but the doings of the bad guys seem to be filmed with such glee, I felt like the director was being a tad over-indulgent. It could be argued that he was showing how incredibly awful the villains were in order to make the revenge parts that much sweeter, but it almost felt like the filmmakers were enjoying the torture scenes a little too much. I’d contrast it with the torture/ear scene in Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs – while that particular scene was very disturbing, it seemed to really work in the context of that particular movie.
Of the three movies, my favorite by far was Let the Right One In. I found this to be a wonderful, refreshingly original movie, especially for a vampire flick. It takes place around Stockholm, Sweden, during the winter, and the settings are all very bland and cold – except there is almost always some red object in the scene, which makes a cool and deliberate contrast to all the whiteness. All of the characters were portrayed very realistically – even the bullies who antagonize the main character. The young actors playing the two main characters, both twelve years old (although one, as she says, has been twelve for a very long time) were wonderful. The horror in this movie comes mainly from the (non-vampire) bullies. While the vampire in the movie is certainly capable of horrific deeds, she’s also very sympathetic. And the scene in the pool near the end of the movie is brilliant! Highly recommended.
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