A Reflection of Fear
Renowned cinematographer William A. Fraker, perhaps best known for lensing Rosemary’s Baby, naturally hired one of the best—László Kovács—to shoot his own film A Reflection of Fear, the second of his three features, and his only directorial venture into horror.
Copycat
Male buddy movies are a dime a dozen, yet finding memorable female screen teams is as difficult as securing a good therapist, doctor, lover, or any other real-world rarity. Yet in Jon Amiel’s 1995 serial-killer thriller, the steely women protagonists M.J. and Helen are a powerhouse duo thanks to the ingenious pairing of Holly Hunter and Sigourney Weaver…
Dead Calm
As we entered the 1990s, the era of sleazy sex thrillers, genre fans exited the previous decade with the parting gift of 1989’s Dead Calm. The Phillip Noyce–directed, George Miller–produced, Australian-made movie veered into racy, provocative territory without neglecting its main mission of delivering unadulterated edge-of-your-seat suspense.
The Lodger
Marie Belloc Lowndes’s 1913 novel The Lodger—an expansion of her short story of the same name—has been an enticing proposition for filmmakers, and well it should, given its delectable “what-if” premise: Jack the Ripper had to have lived somewhere, allowing that he was not unhoused, so what if he lived in the spare room you were renting out?
Strange Darling
Everyone’s got their pet peeves. My biggest movie one happens to be the use of chapters. Films are not books, so they should be able to tell a story in a cinematic way, visually and sonically. Movie chapters always struck me as gimmicky distractions—until Strange Darling came along.
Robert Montgomery in Night Must Fall
The actor’s Oscar-nominated, atypically sinister turn supports the notion that unassuming fellows are often the ones to fear most.
Angel Dust
Angel Dust (1994) is an energetically bleak film about the terrific ease with which we surrender our minds.
The Origin of Evil
It’s often said that you can pick your friends but not your family. Yet in an age of mass communication, it’s never been easier to track down an absentee dad or quietly unfriend a despicable relative on Facebook.
School’s Out
Sébastien Marnier’s second feature may be cursed with a generic English title, but the film immediately dispels any semblance of the ordinary with one of the most attention-grabbing opening scenes in recent memory.
Woman in the Dunes
The tale of an amateur entomologist (Eiji Okada) lured by seemingly amiable rural folk into a sand pit from which he is unable to escape, Woman in the Dunes would seem to generate its particular strain of terror from our primal fear of sequestration and austerity.