William Friedkin’s unfortunate passing in 2023 sadly came during the celebration of one of his all time greatest cinematic masterpieces. This year “The Exorcist” celebrated its 50th anniversary and its legacy has continued thriving. It’s heralded as a horror and cinematic masterpiece by some, it’s despised by religious circles, and it’s yet to be duplicated in impact and influence. This year the studios have pulled out all the stops with licensing merchandise, re-releasing the film in to theaters and of course the 50th anniversary edition of the film on 4K UHD.
Tag Archives: Thriller
The Last House on the Left (2009): Limited Edition [4K UHD/Blu-Ray]
I’ll be the first to admit that I have never been a fan of Wes Craven’s “Last House on the Left” despite its legacy. I respect it for it becoming a platform for Craven but otherwise it was a fairy dull movie that squanders a good premise. Plus I could never get over the comedic sub-plot involving the pair of deputies. Dennis Illiadis completely remakes “Last House” in to the revenge picture that I was originally hoping for. In doing this he side steps about a quarter of the rape and torture, and amps up the revenge plot involving the pair of parents that are outnumbered but not outwitted.
Satanic Hispanics (2022)
“Satanic Hispanics” really is an experiment that I want to see more of. Not only is it a great horror film, but it’s also a pretty great horror anthology that implements the Latin folklore very well and creatively. It’s an admirably ambitious film one packed with so much talent in front of and behind the camera, and it might even spark some interest by horror fans to delve deeper in to the Latin folklore and monsters. “Satanic Hispanics” is an anthology of five short films from some of the leading Latin filmmakers in the horror genre. The cast in each short are predominantly Latin with a slew of stellar supporting actors and actresses alike.
The Last House on the Left (2009) [Arrow Limited Edition]
A gang on the run after their leader escapes bumps into two college students in a small town. Things go very wrong and soon one is dead and the other left for dead. As a storm comes in, the gang finds their way to a lake house where the owners do not take well to what they’ve done.
Cruising (1980) [LA&M Film Fetish Forum]
No other director was able to evoke such feelings of relentless doom and darkness like William Friedkin. “Cruising” is a bold movie from a director that no other studio would touch in this day and age. It’s a movie from a time that’s pretty ancient but also very relevant in modern times. Friedkin squares his lens on the unending darkness and bleak landscape that is New York City, side stepping any and all gloss in favor of unflinching realism. There’s so much to this New York City that’s still so familiar from seedy undergrounds, sub cultures, corrupt police, and a hopelessly broken justice system.
The Last Voyage of The Demeter (2023)
It’s pretty good to see at least one studio investing in transforming vampires in to relentless monsters once again after so many years where vampires have been watered down and overly fetishized. The vampires in André Øvredal’s interpretation of “The Last Voyage of The Demeter” as well as—well—Dracula in general, are not empathetic, alluring figures. They’re blank, cold and vicious monsters controlled by Dracula who is reduced to his most primal state for this re-visiting of one of the most haunting chapters in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Tetris (2023)
That’s the thing about this trend with movies based around telling the story of these milestone products: We either get a movie that should just cut the middle man and be a documentary (“Air”), or we get something so completely sensationalized/fabricated that it’s not even really worth watching anymore (“Flamin’ Hot”). With director Jon S. Baird’s “Tetris” I tuned in to see a movie about the creation and acquisition of the iconic video game. Instead what I got was a pretty vanilla espionage thriller about the KGB, spies, terrorists, politics, and warring companies fighting over contracts and whatnot. Exciting…