This is the second time I've seen this movie in 11 years and I remember watching it way back when I was 17 after it came out. Many of my teenage years were spent going back and forth to Blockbuster video for horror movies and reading Fangoria. I remember reading about this movie in Fangoria and immediately I was enthused to watch it. At the time the teeny bobber slasher movies were still in full swing and this was before Hollywood was remaking everything that was already classic. This movie to me was a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed it then and I enjoy it immensely now.
Does it have flaws? Yes, the soundtrack is schizophrenic at best and cheesey at worst. The action was indeed clumsily staged in the movie. Yes the acting was on and off sometimes(except for Carlyle I'll get to Pearce in a minute.) But.......This movie was a fantastic mixture of a bit of horror, a bit of comedy and just a slight bit of drama. Robert Carlyle seems to me like he was having a blast playing the bad guy in this movie. He did it up very well. He had a very slight resemblance to how Charles Manson looks in this movie and it just adds to the vibe he gave off. One moment he was utterly creepy the next dementedly funny in a dry way. However our protagonist played by Mr. Pearce was not so spot on in my eyes. I felt that he was a little too dramatic bordering on melodramatic. His angst filled stares and stone-faced brooding presence just seemed to completely unbalance his performance against Carlyle's. Lighten up man, this movie was just serious enough yet just dramatic enough but it didn't seem to take itself too too seriously. I liked that with the flourishes of black humor here and there they kept the movie from collapsing under the weight of it's own subject matter.
What I love about this movie is that it has a voice all of it's own. There were not many moments that I sat there and thought "I've seen this before." I'm also very glad that there was nary a reference to another set of familiar cannibals in this movie(of the chainsaw variety). In a way the cannibalism could be symbolic of matters pertaining to human darkness itself. How for some humans(serial killers, etc) this darkness is revealed to certain humans and it has a certain appeal to them. To me it seems to be an underlying theme that when one goes searching for darkness for answers darkness has a tendency to take hold of them. Consume them among other things. Could be a hidden motif. Just my thoughts.
Overall I really enjoyed this movie and it was blast to revisit such a fun and refreshing horror movie that I had forgotten all about.
Oh i thought the music was one of the most unique and interesting parts of the movie, as far as the planning of it went.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt in my mind that it is a unique soundtrack. The problem I mainly had was that a few scenes that were supposed to be menacing ended up not being as menacing with the music. I do give em kudos for trying something different. I forgot to mention though that like Bryan H. I did enjoy the ending song because it gave the movie a tragic ending. Boyd seemed to have finally getting the peace he needed when he died.
ReplyDeleteand Darrell, did you see the similarities in that reveal between Dr. Caligari or was that just me?
ReplyDeleteIndeed. It could be unintentional but there is no doubting the influence of Caligari. I'm from the camp that that was one of the first "twist" endings. Now you can spit and three directions and find movies with multiple twists.
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