Vital Viewing: Don't Look Now (1973)

Don't Look Now  comes to us by short story, written by Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca). And though a lot of short stories don't seem adequate enough to elaborate on with a feature film, Don't Look Now is a near-perfect example of adapting a story from the written word and making it your own. 

John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) and his wife Laura (Julie Christie) are on a working vacation in Venice, where John is overseeing the restoration of an old church after a tragic accident at their English home resulted in the drowning loss of their only daughter, Christine.  While it seems like the perfect distraction to keep their minds off their sorrows, their trip ends up only causing them more grief. 

When John and Laura meet for dinner at a restaurant, Laura meets a pair of sisters, Heather (Hilary Mason) and Wendy (Clelia Matania) in the rest room.  Heather is blind, yet claims to have second sight, and tells Laura that her daughter is essentially watching over her and John.  Laura is perplexed at first, even a bit dazed- and in fact is so overcome with emotion that when she returns to the table she passes out (in what is perhaps the best fainting over a table full of food and drink that I have ever witnessed!)  She is rushed to the hospital, where she is soon feeling quite well.  When John is set to take her home, Laura attempts to convince him that their daughter is "among them".  She explains that Heather knew details about Christine, and was able to describe her so vividly that there's no way she couldn't be close by.

John is nothing if not a reasonable, sensible man.  He dismisses the sisters, warning Laura that it is just a scam of some sort. Though Laura's mood - previously rather despondent - has done a complete 180 after her encounter with the sisters, he's even less convinced of Heather's other-worldly powers after a second run-in with the women has Laura claiming that they have warned her that his life is in danger. She pleads with John to come visit the sisters with her, that Heather is going to try to contact Christine on the other side.

Furious, John refuses to hear any more about it, and though angry at first, he quickly warms to Laura's charms when the two retire to the bedroom.  In one of the more controversial sex scenes in horror (or in film in general, for that matter), the couple engages in some pretty graphic (at least for the time) intercourse, which is beautifully filmed and interspersed with scenes of them getting ready for dinner that evening. 

Julie Christie is one sexy woman, and looks fabulous throughout the entire film.  Every stitch of clothing she puts on looks tailor-made for her and despite the early 70's trends, she looks very in-vogue even today. Her engaging smile is both sexy and friendly, and is well-used here despite the morose themes.  Donald Sutherland, well.... he's DONALD SUTHERLAND. What's not to like?

I digress...

On the way to dinner, John and Laura become disoriented traveling the dark streets of Venice. They end up separated, and it's here where we realize this is really John's story, not the couple's.  He wanders the streets, looking for Laura, when he sees a young girl in a red slicker - just like the one Christine was wearing upon her death. He's unable to catch up with the girl, and finally makes his way back to Laura. It won't be the first time he sees the slicker, nor the first time he gets lost roaming through Venice. It's part of what gives this film an unsettling appeal.  For we are nothing if not terrified when we are lost in a strange place.

Venice itself is an important character in Don't Look Now.  Its watery streets and ancient architecture lend a solemn and even forboding feel to the film.  Being lost in the presence of such archaic buildings and gondola-ridden waterways would give anyone pause, but the way the city is used to such confusing effect gives it an all-too sinister feel.

There are a few key themes that will resonate with audiences here. Surely directors such as M. Night Shyamalan and even Steven Spielberg were influenced by the trigger use of red within their respective films The Sixth Sense and Schindler's List.  In Don't Look Now, we're shown the color in crucial moments - among them the color of Christine's slicker, the ball she was playing with when she died, the red-cloaked individual John sees several times, and the "blood" on the slides of the church John is working on.  Water weighs heavily in influence here as well, with the daughter drowning and then John and Laura ending up in Venice of all places - a city surrounded by and within water. 

Don't Look Now is an amazing piece of film-making that has achieved a high standard and classic status for a reason.  It's just that excellent.  It's not a feel-good film, as the recurring theme of death is ever-present, but it is such a well-acted example of grief, mourning, and the inability to move on that it pulls you into its lair of deception and forces you to enjoy it despite any misgivings.  There are parts of the film where people are speaking in Italian, but you are given no subtitles to help you decipher the words. You are left to your own devices to make your own conclusions, which brings about a confusion and disorientation that mirrors that of John and Laura throughout the two hour running time.
I can't stress enough what a great movie this is - and it's on Netflix Instant Watch AND Amazon Prime Instant Video right now - so what are you waiting for? 

Vital Viewing: The Vanishing (1988)

To what lengths would you go to find out what happened to a missing loved one?  This is the question that the excellent Dutch film, The Vanishing (a.k.a. Spoorloos), asks. 

Directed by George Sluize, the film tells the story of Rex (Gene Bervoets), whose desperate search for the woman (Johanna ter Steege) he loves leads him to near-madness as his three year search culminates in one of the most disturbing and nightmarish endings in cinematic history.

Rex and Saskia (ter Steege) are on holiday in France when they stop for gas. Saskia goes into the adjacent convenience store to get them some drinks and never returns.  It's a simple activity that you and I do everyday. Go get a coffee, a paper, a pack of smokes, etc.  Rex waits the obligatory amount of time, perhaps figuring she's hit the restrooms while inside.  But when she doesn't return after several minutes - too many minutes - he heads inside.  Unable to find her anywhere, he begins to panic. Making matters worse is that the store clerk and the station attendant outside both recall seeing her chatting with another man.

Whereas most people would possibly think she'd run off with someone else, Rex is completely secure in his relationship and knows something untoward has happened.  He questions everyone he can see, including the store manager, who explains that the police aren't going to do anything right away. They will assume the couple has been fighting and won't take any interest in it as a missing person crime for at least 24 hours.
Rex spends the night at the station but still...no Saskia.

What makes this film so special is that early on in the film we are introduced to the antagonist.  Raymond  Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) is shown making plans to kidnap a woman. He goes over various scenarios, practices timing things out perfectly, even down to what his pulse will be, how he will secure the woman in the car after stealing her away, and whether or not anyone can hear screams for help.  A fascinating yet frightening look inside the mind of a sociopath, Lemorne is a seemingly devoted husband with two daughters. Yet he buys a house in the country, causing his wife and one of his daughters to think he is having an affair because he is spending so much time there.  It's obvious the country house figures into his devious plan, but we are never really privy to what happened after Lemorne kidnaps Saskia - which is part of the horror of this movie.

The film is told in both flashbacks and real time, giving it an unbalanced feel, which while often annoying and confusing in many films, really works here.  Eventually we do see Lemorne interacting with Saskia inside the convenience store, and we see that all his practice pays off as his kidnapping scheme goes according to plan.

In addition, we see the anguish Rex has been going through when, three years later he is still putting up posters of Saskia's likeness that ask if anyone has seen her.  He has started another relationship with Lieneke (Gwen Eckhaus), but though she has been patient throughout his endless search, she is reaching the end of her rope, sharing Rex with the ghost of his relationship with Saskia.
Also, perhaps unbelievably over the course of the three years, Rex has been teased by Lemorne, who relishes his petty tortures by sending postcards to Rex asking him to meet with him but then he never shows.

The best part of the film comes when Lemorne, tired of taunting Rex with false hope, shows up out of the blue and tells Rex he will "explain everything" if he just comes with him.  Naturally Rex has second thoughts about going with a man that may have killed his lover - and most certainly is responsible for her disappearance, but the pains of curiosity get the better of him and he gets in Lemorne's car.

To reveal the ending of the film would be a ghastly and unforgivable transgression on my part, so that's all you're getting from me.  Suffice it to say though, that once you've seen this film, you won't soon forget the unnerving ending. 

A brilliant and stunning piece of film making, The Vanishing should be near the top of any discerning horror fan's list of must-sees.  Highly recommended! 
(The 1993 American remake of the same name, however, is not.)

Vital Viewing: The Entity (1981)

The Entity is another film from the banner year of 1981 and tells the (reportedly) true story of a woman battered, beaten, raped, and all-around terrified by a malicious spirit in her own home. The paranormal events that plagued her are supposedly well documented and are the basis - or perhaps a better word would be inspiration - for this shocker starring Barbara Hershey. 

Carla Moran (Hershey) is a single mother raising three children: a teenaged boy, Billy (David Labiosa), and two young daughters, Julie (Natasha Ryan of Amityville Horror fame), and Kim (Melanie Gaffin).  She has a boyfriend Jerry (Alex Rocco) who apparently works away and is absent for the first half of the film.

Almost as soon as we meet the family, Carla is brutally raped inside her bedroom by someone she cannot see.  After the attack she begins screaming, alerting her son, who thoroughly checks out the house but is unable to find the assailant.  Carla convinces herself it must have been a dream, but when it happens a second time she and the family bug out and stay the rest of the night with her friend Cindy (Margaret Blye).

The rape scenes themselves (which continue throughout the majority of the film) hold nothing back, with Charles Bernstein's thumping (and distracting, if I'm being quite honest) score violently alerting you to the attacks much in the same way that John Williams' (far superior) score tells us the shark is coming.  The effective musical cues are so loud and booming that it becomes nearly too much, but just like the attacks, it ends just as abruptly.
What's extra unnerving here is that as an audience we too, witness the attacks.  We can see the entity pulling Carla's legs apart, touching her breasts, ambushing her sexually...it's almost too excessive.

Carla, thinking she is safe while out of her home, is shocked when the unseen force strikes again while she is driving to work, nearly causing her to wreck several times.  She seeks psychiatric counseling upon Cindy's advice and is a quivering mess when she meets Dr. Sneiderman (Ron Silver).  She tries to explain to him that she cannot see her attacker but she can smell him and feel him, and goes on to say that the room gets very cold and that the assailant smells foul. Dr. Sneiderman tries to convince her that the attacks stem from her subconscious recalling traumatic events from her childhood, that she is being raped emotionally and it is her imagination that causes her to believe that she is being physically assaulted.

But when others witness the merciless attacks (including her son, who is pushed away and injured by the entity when he tries to help his mother), Carla knows something must be done to try and stop the aggressive and relentless supernatural visitations. 
She enlists the help of a handful of parapsychologists from the local college, who have dabbled in paranormal activity before but have never seen anything of this nature before.
They begin experiments to see if they can somehow harness the entity, and when Carla's boyfriend resurfaces he is aghast at the lengths she goes to to try and rid herself of the supposed demonic spirit.  Naturally, Jerry doesn't believe one word of her story, until he is privy to an especially unsavory attack which unfortunately causes him to end their relationship.

With nothing to lose, Carla agrees to a dangerous experiment and complies with the scientist's request to somehow beckon the entity to come to her in a controlled environment.  Dr. Sneiderman shows up and tries to reason with Carla, but she's having none of it.  Her life has spiraled so far out of control at this point that she fears for her children's lives as well as her own.

Whether or not The Entity is actually inspired by a true event is not important here.  As in most films of this kind, viewers are asked to suspend their belief for a few hours and if you can just forget how ridiculous the premise appears to be, you are in for an effective story with great acting (in particular Hershey, who carries the entire film on her shoulders) and some unnerving and at times brutal scenes of terror.  Any woman not disturbed by the ferocious rape scenes is an unfeeling Stepford pod-person, as Hershey's portrayal of a woman in crisis is truly top-notch.  She holds nothing back, bringing a whole truckload of believability to a film whose main antagonist isn't even human. 

As stated, Hershey's performance is stellar, but also of note is the acting of a young David Labiosa, whose character of Billy is especially good as well.  His compassion for his mother is honorable as we see him struggle to be the man of the household and in turn protect his mother from her fears, whether unfounded or not.  Ron Silver also has a positive performance here, as a psychiatrist who may be getting a little too close to his unstable patient. 

While the film does lose a bit of its rhythm when they delve into the para-psychological experiments (a similar thing happened near the end of Insidious), and it did drag a bit for me at this point.  I guess I'm not a big fan of all the bells and whistles used to discover ghosts' existence - but that could stem from me not actually wanting them to be debunked or realized. I much prefer the old school 'what you can't see is scarier than what you can see': I don't want my ghosts uncovered, I want them firmly in the 'might be real' category.  Being scared is much more interesting than listening to a dissertation about their existence and the methods used to bring it to light. 

The Entity is vital viewing mostly due to Barbara Hershey's excellent portrayal of a woman losing hope and possibly sanity, but also because no one has yet to make a film on this particular subject matter as honest and direct, yet.  It doesn't really hide anything, and it sure the hell doesn't wait to scare the pants off you.  It just forces it right down your throat. And that lump you feel there, well..it's fear. 

Vital Viewing: The Sentinel (1977)

 Review by Marie Robinson

Greetings, horror lovers! I’m going to tell you all about a movie that if you haven’t seen, you must. It isn’t very well known among my generation, some people my age know only of the horror movies that rely on sound cues and jump-scares. They don’t know about the golden era of horror, the 1970’s, when the films were original and the scares were real.
This is a movie that can keep you up at night, cowering beneath your covers; a movie that can make you scream out loud not because of the deafening slam of piano keys, but by a figure walking out in complete silence. This is a movie that will make you cringe, giggle, gasp, and applaud by its end. This, my friends, is The Sentinel.

"What's up with the priest upstairs?"

Michael Winner directed this beloved film of mine, based on the novel by Jeffrey Konvitz, who lent his hand to write the script, as well. It stars the beautiful Cristina Raines as Alison Parker, a model with a tragic past who is looking to get a place of her own in Brooklyn. As she arrives to take a tour of an apartment building, the first thing she notices is a man staring out of the top window. The landlady tells her that it is just an old priest, who happens to gaze out of windows although he is blind.

Black and white cat, black and white cake!

Alison takes the apartment but of course all is not as it seems. The first turn-off is the cast of kooky neighbors, including an all too friendly old man who carries a yellow parakeet on his shoulder named Mortimer, and a cat named Jezebel in his arms. Then of course, there are the hospitable lesbians downstairs who insist on walking around in leotards. If that isn’t enough to make her uneasy, at night she is plagued by vivid nightmares, only to wake up to the sound of heavy footfalls in the empty apartment above her.

Her health begins to fail as well. Alison succumbs to frequent fainting spells, she becomes flighty and nervous. Things really take a turn for her sanity when one night she braves the hallways of the brownstone to seek out what is causing the noise night after night. What she finds is more horrifying than she could ever expect.

The beautiful Cristina Raines as Alison

Something is certainly not right with this place; something sinister resides there. Is poor Alison just the unlucky soul who happened upon this hellish place, or is there, perhaps, a reason she resides there?

“So, what’s so great about this movie, anyway?” You Sentinel virgins might well ask. The obvious answer is because it is awesome, but I guess I’ll go ahead and give you the specifics.
 First of all, it is from a time when horror films still valued a storyline. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of scares, a decent amount of blood, and a handful of 70’s boobs, but a solid storyline is what makes The Sentinel the masterpiece that it is.

The atmosphere is set more by the characters than the setting, for the apartment itself is gorgeous. I mean, that is why Alison picks it; a well-off model like herself isn’t going to go out and pick a cheap, spooky-ass flat. However, the beautiful brownstone undergoes a supernatural makeover when the sun goes down. That’s when the chandeliers start to swing and the specters come out.

The characters (and actors) are really what give the film its unique bizarreness. Okay, the guy who plays Alison’s boyfriend really, really sucks, but the rest of them do just a stellar job. Christina Raines perfectly captures the peculiar emotions one must have to go through in a situation like this.

Speaking of actors, near the end of the film a whole new cast of characters is introduced—a pack of demons—which happened to be portrayed by actual deformed people. Michael Winner caught some heat once this was discovered, but if you get over that little fact I think it definitely adds a quirk to this already weird film. You can’t deny that the scene when all the “demons” appear is terrifying, and is certainly something you will remember about the movie, especially after knowing the disturbing truth behind it.

The film surely has its moments, the climax being one of them, but the whole reason I first came to know of this film was because it was featured on Bravo’s 100 Scariest Movie Moments (it was ranked at #46). The scene they featured was horrifying on its own, and I knew just from seeing the clip that I had to see the whole thing, and even though I’ve seen the film several times, that particular scene still gives me gooseflesh!

Vital Viewing: The Wicker Man (1973)

The Wicker Man is a stand-out classic of cult proportions - one that every horror fan should see, regardless of the fact that it plays as a strange and unconventional mystery throughout most of the film up until its startling ending. 

Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) has come to a small off-shore island from mainland Scotland to look into the disappearance of one Rowan Morrison.  What he finds when he gets there is a full-on Pagan community that takes their beliefs quite seriously and are not afraid to show it.  Naked women dancing around Stonehenge-type monuments, young men dancing around maypoles, Christopher Lee dancing in a parade of heathen sacrifice.  Everybody's dancing! 

Locals are quick to dismiss the young girl's disappearance, claiming she never even existed.  He starts his search at The Green Man Inn, where he is introduced to the landlord's daughter, Willow (Britt Eckland).  Rooming at the tavern, he is tempted beyond belief when Willow uses all her feminine wiles (albeit in an adjoining room) to tease him into joining her for a little romp.  Writhing naked to sensual music and thrashing herself against the walls and doors, Willow sings a fertility song designed to make Howie forget about his girlfriend back home and his (!) virginity.  How he keeps his chastity is anyone's guess.

As he continues his exploration of the town, no one is fessing up to having knowledge of young Rowan.  He checks the post office, school, library, even the chemist's shop; but no Rowan.

Sgt. Howie is aghast at the blatant religious disregard in the isolated island town that has apparently never embraced Christianity and prefers to spend its days growing apples and having sex (and why the hell not?!).  And when they are not actually procreating, they are discussing the act - even the school children are taking lessons in 'celtic' sex-ed.  Besides all the sex, some of the other unorthodox rituals he is witness to tend to lean towards the bizarre - like when he sees a woman making a young child put a toad in her mouth to rid her of a throat infection, among other things.

After discovering a grave marker in the local cemetery that bears Rowan's name, and because the townsfolk are unwilling to admit Rowan ever existed (even the girl's own mother denies her!) and keep rambling on about their gods and their religion, Howie seeks out their enigmatic leader, Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee).  At once a charismatic and charming man, he tries to lay Howie's fears to rest and ends up taking him on a tour of the island, explaining to him the foundation of their Pagan religion and revealing that they believe that the gods of old shine on them and their orchards and fields because they worship them and offer them sacrifices to ensure this happens.  Of course Lord Summerisle assures Sgt. Howie that the sacrifices are of the animal variety, and only when necessary. 

Howie doesn't seem too sure of this or anything else after witnessing naked women performing some kind of peculiar ritual, young boys singing songs about "planting their seeds", school girls discussing how the maypole is a phallic symbol, and a night-time orgy that sends a sweating and turned-on Howie back to his room at the inn to try to recover.

He concedes defeat and tells himself he has no choice but to leave in the morning, to get as far away from the sacrilegious bunch of nut jobs as he can.  Unfortunately, morning brings a plane that won't start and Howie determined to at last find young Rowan, as he has a sneaking suspicion that she has been tucked away in hiding somewhere to be used as the sacrifice during the May Day celebration that day.  The inn has photos of each yearly celebration, but the most recent picture is missing.  When Howie sneaks around searching, he does indeed find the absent photo, which shows a young girl (Rowan?) in front of failing crops and orchards.

Certain that Rowan is still alive, he accosts the innkeeper and steals his May Day costume, resolute in his decision to stop the sacrifice of the child.  He joins in the ensuing parade (led by Lord Summerisle in a creepy black wig and snazzy yellow turtleneck) and proceeds to the shoreline where the grim festivities are culminating. Because this movie really needs and deserves to be seen, I can't disclose the finale, except to say it hits you like a ton of bricks. 


The Wicker Man is not your typical horror movie.  In fact I'm really not sure there is any blood at all.  But it gets under your skin like no film I have ever seen.  While in some places it can seem almost comical, there is an underlying sense of doom that permeates throughout.  It is a fascinating and mostly true look at the Pagan lifestyle (sans sacrifices of course).  The film is highlighted by several traditional folk tunes and original songs by Paul Giovanni which add to the mystery and enchantment of the Pagan society.

I think people that don't like this film don't really get what the filmmakers were striving for.  Regardless of how religious you may or may not be, for most people it is an intriguing thought (no matter how lewd or nefarious it may seem) to be utterly devoid of morality and just do what you feel.  Modern Christianity and the other religions of the world demand that we conform to the standard views and doctrines that are set before us. To imagine frolicking in the woods naked or teaching our children about the birds and bees in classrooms seems unthinkable, let alone having orgies or worrying more about the apple harvest than your tax return. As a society, most people are way too judgmental and far too ethical to allow themselves to be that capricious.

What The Wicker Man does is present us with a premise that seems like a simple missing person's case, but in actuality it is a much darker film.  The impending May Day celebration gives Summerisle a hint of jubilation, a sense of 'all is right with the world'. Alas, we soon find out it is not. There are more malevolent forces at work here - an occult underbelly of aberrant life-styles and eccentric beliefs.
The best way to see The Wicker Man is to come into it completely unprepared and with no prior knowledge of the film. It will make the biggest impact this way, and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

*Do not read the comments section if you haven't seen the film, there are spoilers...