Movieline Online

THE INNOCENTS (1961): This darkly adept translation of Henry James classic novel, The Turn of the Screw, stars Deborah Kerr as the fragile first-time governess to a pair of orphaned children who may or may not be possessed by the spirits of an isolated country estate. Director Jack Clayton and cinematographer Freddie Francis paint some of the most beautiful shadows in screen history, while Truman Capote’s script keeps Kerr on the edge of insanity. On the surface, it’s a film of billowing curtains and half-seen phantoms. But Kerr’s descent into a Freudian nightmare of sexual repression is scandalously frightening even by today’s standards. An obvious inspiration on Nicole Kidman’s The Others, it might just be the ultimate ghost story for adults. Both the full screen and correct widescreen version are included along with a vintage trailer.

THE FLICK: The conventions of the giallo genre – for all its stalk, slash and kill pleasures – can become a bit tiresome, especially when one accounts for the Italian tendency to ride a good thing into the ground with sequels to remakes of American rip-offs three or four generations deep. So it’s no small surprise that Sergio Martino’s Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key turns out to be a thriller of distinction and class with all the perversions of the best Italian gialli – yet completely unlike anything that came before it. Incorporating a key element from Edgar Allen Poe’s The Black Cat, the film stages almost all its action within the confines of a neo-gothic estate in the Italian countryside, the residence of a has-been alcoholic author (Luigi Pistilli) and his wife (Anita Strindberg), whose marriage has deteriorated into a brutal stage play of Freudian issues and open physical hostility. Into this chaos comes a visiting relative (the lovely Edwige Fenech) who bring...

THE FLICK: It’s been said only a few hundred people bought the Velvet Underground’s first record, but every one of them became musicians. I’m not sure how many people got a chance to see Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2 in theaters, but it’s a safe bet the majority of them walked out wanting to be filmmakers. I know I sure the hell did! A bigger-budget (notice I didn’t say big budget) re-imagining of the original Evil Dead, which got a good boost of publicity thanks to a quote from Stephen King, Evil Dead 2 is the equivalent of cinematic anarchy. It breaks every rule in the Hollywood handbook except the most important – keep the audience entertained. Combining Three Stooges slapstick with non-stop gross-out gags, Raimi and his puppet of punishment Bruce Campbell elevate the horror/comedy genre to Citizen Kane standards. The first fifteen-minutes are a deliberate celluloid hazing. The audience is pummeled with visual tricks that don’t seem physically possible. It’s not just steadicam, it’s “shak...

THE FLICKS: As the DVD format digs ever deeper into the burial grounds of the horror genre, there are fewer true “classics” left to be unearthed by pioneering producers. Many fans have made a case for Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead series (or at least the first entry) to be enshrined on home video and, for the faithful; Blue Underground’s Blind Dead Collection will likely surpass their wildest hopes. While those unfamiliar with the particular pleasures of 70’s Spanish horror (which includes contemporaries Paul Naschy and Jesus Franco) might want gather a few opinions about this extravagantly packaged box-set, which contains four films, one documentary and a 40-page booklet full of beautiful poster art. Released once before on a now out-of-print Anchor Bay double feature DVD (which included the first two films in the series), The Blind Dead are certainly an acquired taste. While one comes to expect and sometimes inexplicably embrace the flaws inherent in the low-budget Euro-horror, Osso...

KONTROLL: Set in the grimy underworld of the Budapest mass transit system, director Nimrod Antal’s debut feature (which won several major film fest awards) is a spectacularly vivid portrait of a class of citizens who spend much of their time in the dark. Part psycho-thriller, part gonzo comedy, Kontroll feels more alive than most films made in the last 10 years. Working as part of a team of ticket inspectors, Bulcsu (Sandor Csanyi) suffers blackouts that just happen to coincide with a series of murders in the subways. And the non-stop craziness of his job compromises his own fragile sanity as the general population regularly punches, pummels or spits on anyone wearing the red “control” badge. The characters are endearingly and energetically sketched, the action scenes (particularly a suicidal game called “railing”) are dynamically photographed, and the world Antal creates is so complete – from the constant hum of the fluorescent lights to the wind of each passing train – you feel like ...

THE FLICK: Clive Cussler books are beach-reading for men. Shallow, superficial and pumped full of testosterone, they appeal to our inner-jock who dreams of traveling the world, uncovering valuable historical relics and charming women with our masculine indifference to their own exotic temptations. If you thought Ian Fleming’s superspy was an affront to literary logic and feminist ideology, Dirk Pitt is a big ‘ol slap in the face. I say this even though I’ve read nearly all of Dirk’s underwater adventures (until the plots became so ludicrous Cussler had to take on co-authors to shoulder half the blame), and without exception, enjoyed every single one. How can this be? Well, Cussler’s “top-that!” style of writing doesn’t mince words, it gives you one spectacular set-piece after another, stringing together globe-hopping disasters and discoveries with laughable coincidences that somehow seem perfectly plausible in the world of Dirk Pitt and his rough-n-tumble buddy Al Giordino. But in the ...