When it comes to icons of the ‘Slasher’ genre, there are your immediate ‘Go to’s’, your ‘Freddy’s’, Your ‘Jasons’, your ‘Michaels’…and then theres the edge of that limelight, a place occupied by franchises like ‘Hellraiser’, ‘The Exorcist’ or to a lesser extent the ‘Leprachaun’ franchise. But probably the strongest contender to make the jump from the edge of the limelight to a full blown A-grade icon, is non other than Charles Lee Ray, better known as ‘Chucky’.

The ‘Childs Play’/’Chucky’ franchise is a bit of an oddity of the genre, with 7 films and 3 tv series almost entirely masterminded by one man, Don Mancini. and here, in the first entry in the franchise, he does a pretty decent job of dressing the table for what was to come.

The plot is centered around a notorious mass killer ‘Charles Lee Ray’ who ends up caught up in a botched heist that ends in a showdown at a toy store where he’s taken out by a detective hot on his trail. Moments before he dies however, Charles appears to use some kind of dark magic on a doll, ending his life and blowing up the toy store in the process.

From there we’re introduced to Karen and her son Andy. Karen is a single parent desperately making ends meet at a convenience store in a tough working environment. Andy is OBSESSED with the hot toy trend of 1988 the ‘Good Guy’ doll, think ‘My Buddy’ and your not a million miles off.

The toy is a scarce commodity, but when one of Karens friends gets a tip that a hobo in the back ally behind the store has a good guy doll for sale at a discount, Karen leaps to the chance to secure the doll as a birthday gift for Andy, making up for a somewhat tepid birthday present opening session earlier.

Little do the pair know that the doll in question is quite possibly more than it seems, and when bodies start turning up, the question becomes, is Andy a killer, or could a doll REALLY be comitting murders? Well…unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last 36 years, you’ll probably figure this one out before the titles even end.

But in a way, thats part of the charm of the first ‘Childs Play’ its not ‘Who’s the killer?’ it’s ‘How long is it until Karen and the crew realise Chucky is a killer doll?’ and the film REALLY goes to great lengths in relishing the fact that we as the audience KNOW whats happening, but the cast dont. it takes great pleasure in playing out scenes in such a way that we KNOW whats going to happen, and the enjoyment doesnt come from the gore or excessive swearing (though that does certainly help things), It comes from how intense and atmospheric Tom Hollands direction work is, and how suspensful Mancini’s writing compliments proceedings.

While later entries in this franchise would soften Chucky into a border horror comedy figure, this film is really more a horror thriller with a sprinkle of dark comedy added in for spice. the pacing is semi slow burn, with quick rushes of action liberally applied throughout and I think that really was the best way to do this, it really helps amp up the tensions and when the reveal that Chucky IS in fact a ‘real boy’ actually happens, it feels like a very satisfying payoff rather than something cheap and undercut.

The tone is quite different too from latter entries, being the only film in the series produced by MGM (almost all the later entries would be handled by Universal) this one has a significantly grittier, darker tone. it contrasts lighter drama and comedy elements with some genuinely unpleasent moments, and while some of the script is quite farfetched…this is a film about a killer doll, if you can suspend your disbelief on that, you can believe a single mother can afford a nice semi-luxury 6th floor apartment.

Its amazing really also just how well fleshed out most of the cast are here, key figures from this film will continue to reappear across the entirity of the film and TV franchise, but even this early on, so many elements of their personalities, mannerisms and tones are essentially hard baked in…and while I will say that some of the plot and continuity elements in this entry dont *100%* line up with the rest of the franchise, theres enough going into this that you *could* forgive it for maybe getting a bit ahead of itself on its intentions and where it wants to be.

Overall? I think this is a fun introductory story, not exactly an ‘origianl’ plot at this point in film and media history, but then? what is. its a tight, witty, clever and well made script that really hits the ground running and delivers on every punch right up until the end credits.

as for the direction? Gorgeous. This is probably the 2nd nicest looking film in the ‘Childs Play’ series. a grungey and grim picture that gave me strong ‘Candy Man’ vibes at times. theres a real keen creative eye for this picture and between the stunt doubles dressed as chucky, the animatronics and the props. Holland becomes probably the first director to really, truely ‘nail’ the killer doll genre. which…given before this most killer doll movies either had the doll not move at all, or it was just a dwarf in a costume…It wasnt exactly a *high* bar…but he smashed it out of the park all the same.

DIrection of the cast too is pretty much faultless, they all hit there marks perfectly, they work exceptionally well with the set space, there physical perforamances and line deliveries feel very solidly crafted. Its about as well as it could have gone for a production like this…there are maybe a couple of deliveries that I felt could have maybe gone in a different direction, but otherwise. they nailed it.

The cine too is fabulous, largely soft and colourful, composition is great, they really work with the locations to get the maximum return on what they’re working with. Id argue this again is probably the 2nd prettiest looking entry in the franchise and a strong ‘top 5’ contender for nicest shot mainstream ‘slasher’ period. its a rock solid production that really looks great.

Perforamance wise, cue the broken record, but Brad Douriff is an unstoppable force. This is his role, he owns it so entirely that I dont feel like it can be handed off to anyone other than him. He IS Chucky. his live action scenes at the beginning are superbly handled and his line delivery as the killer doll are equally superlative.

Catherine Hicks is also great as Karen, giving a well rounded performance that lets her work a decent range, she hits every cue and lands almost every line. as was Alex Vincent as ‘Andy’, I dont really like to talk about child actors, but I will make an exception here somewhat in saying that even at this stage in his career, he nailed what was needed for this and really knocked it out of the park, with the best still to come!

In fact, one of the only things that kind of let this down was the score…or rather, the lack of it…there are some incidental pieces…but they’re all kind of unremarkable to me…the more contemporary music is treated as incidental and equally didnt really do much, it all feels too buried in the sound mix for me to leave a lasting impact. I feel like this needed something a little more ‘defining’ for it to really truely win me over.

All in all? the first ‘Childs Play’ film really hit the ground running, while it hadnt quite nailed the tone it was going to end up working with for the next 35+ years, whats presented here is a bit remarkable honestly, a fully formed world and idea, ready to go right out of the gate. while im still on the fence about its rewatch value in terms of how frequently i’ll revisit this one, I cant deny that I had a lot of fun with this one, its a solid production delivering something a little bit different for a franchise that from here on in, is going to go on quite the strange and exotic odyssy. Reccommended.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/childs-play/

Look, Im sure you’ve read many MANY think pieces on the racial under and overtones of ‘Blazing Saddles’. On a moral level, im sure there are as many folks who enjoy the ‘humour’ in this for the wrong reasons as much as their are people who enjoy this film for the actual INTENDED humour of the work.

To clarify, my stance on this film is that ‘Blazing Saddles’ depicts white people (Wilder excluded) as big dumb idiot racists, and the black cast as self aware, charismatic and ‘knowing’, but not above, being silly. The humour ISNT in the fact that the majority of the cast get to use the hard ‘R’ word, its not in the racial profiling. its a lampooning of the time, what folks were generally like, and the absurdity of that time in history.

We as the audience are expected to relate and view the film from Bart and/or Jim ‘The Waco Kids’ perspective…In short, if you dont think this film has a clear leading character you can relate to, or if your finding yourself siding with Hedley Lamaar or Taggart…You’ve watched the film wrong. Its not that they couldnt make ‘Blazing Saddles’ these days because of ‘Woke’. Its that they dont NEED to make ‘Blazing Saddles’ because ‘Blazing Saddles’ already exists, and that time has been and gone.

The story of a former slave turned railway track layer, Bart is one step ahead of the men who beat him and his fellow workers, to the point that eventually through the dumb cowboys stupidity (and as part of a bigger plan by the devious Hedley Lamarr) he ends up unwittingly being assigned the title of ‘Sheriff of Rock Ridge’ a small town set up directly in the path of Lamarrs aforementioned railway line.

Rejected by a backwards and racist, god fearing town. Sheriff Bart lays low in the town jail, where he meets Jim (Wilder) a town drunk sobering up after a night in the cells. The pair strike up a friendship and its revealed that Jim is in fact ‘The Waco Kid’ the fastest hand in the west…with the shakes.

The pairs friendship ultimately results in a broader acceptance from the town, and after Hedley sends in several attempts to destroy the town that Bart disrupts and halts. The town slowly begins to warm to the pair. Leading to ever increasing chaotic moves from Hedley, his right hand man ‘Taggart’ and his lugnut henchman ‘Mungo’. Comedy ensues.

Cards on the table, ‘Blazing Saddles’ isnt my favourite Mel Brookes film, Its likely top 3…But I personally prefer ‘Young Frankenstein’ and ‘The Producers’ a little bit more. The script is a little on the saggy side for my taste. Its crammed to the gills with humour, but it throws so MUCH at the screen that, to me? it feels less like a carefully crafted and curated multi layer comedy, and more like a wet cake of every flavour thats slowly sliding off the cake board onto the floor. It has a VERY high hit rate on gags…but a lot of the gags, by modern standards are kind of lame, and some of the jokes left me with crickets.

The act structuring is pretty decent for the most part, it opens a little slower than i’d like, but once it works up a head of steam and really gets going, it delivers the kind of comedy gut punch you really want in a movie like this…Unfortunately Brookes cant help himself with the 3rd act and things get strangely meta as the plot leaves the highway, crashes through the barrier and heads to space. in scenes HIGHLY remeniscent of ‘Casino Royale’ from not some 7 years prior. I imagine people not familiar with ‘Royale’ would see the ending of this film as wonderfully ‘out of left field’, but to me I found it feeling a little creaky and ‘done’.

That isnt to fault the characters here who are all zany, wonderfully daffy and deleriously delightful. Its that same flavour of ‘Brookes’ magic that you know and love, with a little bit of help from Richard Pryor to really help get it over the line.

Direction is razor, imitating a lot of the classic western shot types and creative designs. If you wernt aware of the cast and went into this EXPECTING a western, you’d almost certainly really believe this was one for the first 10 minutes or so at least. GORGEOUS scene structuring and a clear creative direction in vision is pretty obvious here. It doesnt really bring anything ‘new’ to the genre…But what it does, it does very well and I appreciate it.

Same goes for the cast direction which is just STELLER. some of the best line deliveries, physical comedy and camera/set placements in Brooks career are present here and my god he is RELENTLESS. I Love Young Frankenstein and The Producers…but I do believe this may be Brooks best film for cast direction.

The cine too is lovely, if not a little simplistic at times. the wides and ultra wides really pop in HD and have a gorgeous depth to them. set based sequences however are a little simplistic, which is a shame, things settle into a bit of a drab brown and beige funk until we get to go on location again…which is a real shame because of how beautiful those location shots are.

The edit is a masterclass in comic timing, cuts are PERFECTLY timed with exactly the perfect amount of beats between the feed lines and the punch lines. a wonderful work, the only thing im a bit confused by really is more on a technical level. the transitions in this film seem to have an ultra long lead, meaning the footage degrades slightly for AGES both before and after a cross transition happens…In most films, its usually a few seconds either side…but here, almost entire sequences will have this degredation…I found it unusual…and a little distracting… ho hum.

Performance wise, everyones in their element. Cleavon Little is the star of the show as Sheriff Bart, charismatic, charming, perfect on line delivery. He has a wonderful screen presence and the film almost certainly would have been a poorer fare without him. Gene Wilder is surprisingly mute in this production, he doesnt really do a whole lot, but the handful of scenes where he does get a decent roll of the dice he unloads both barrels quite wonderfully and he gets the tone of the picture and his delivery near enoug perfect.

Harvey Korman as Hedley is a wonderfully cartoonish villain and an excellent foil to Littles performance. he’s much more up tight and subdued. But has a great physical performance that really helps carry the picture from first scene to last. The rest of the cast dont dissapoint either. Though a problem I have with this film (and a few of Brooks works) is it feels like the characters outside of the main core cast seem to only exist for one liners and dressing. and im not talking about extras…basically if your B-tier cast in a Mel Brooks production. Be prepared to have one really good joke handed to you, and then to basically just be relegated to either rumbling around in the background or doing that joke again in the background. Its a bit of a shame and I feel it would have been nice to give, what is a pretty stellar cast. a bit more depth or range to work with.

And finally; the soundtrack! its a PERFECT parody of the classic western genre, with just enough modernisation to help keep it feeling fresh. It cues the film perfectly, though does feel a little bit repetative by the end credits. maybe a bit more variety or range within the style they’re working with would have just helped seal the deal for me on this one.

‘Blazing Saddles’ is…pretty much fine. its fun, I enjoyed it, it absolutely has its moments and deserves the title of ‘A classic’, but I totally understand the arguement that even if its lampooning dumb racist culture…by using the language of racists, its culpable to racist enablement even if its just to a small degree. I personally dont go THAT far…but I understand that arguement more than the ‘you cant say/do these things anymore!’ arguement that right wingers seem to trott out every few years.

I think if you are offended even by just the words of racism, you probably wont be able to settle into this one. and I get that. if you can take this though for what it is (a sincere attempt to kick a load of racist wet wipes and their ancestors up the arse) I think you’ll quickly settle into, and enjoy this one.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/blazing-saddles/1/

Short but sweet. One of Steve Martins finest performances. A comedy lasagna of EPIC proportions. There are jokes inside the jokes INSIDE THE JOKES…impossibly good fun. Tender, charismatic. A wonderful work, my only criticism is 5-10 minutes shorter, and it’d be truely perfect.

Watch ‘The Jerk’…just…just go watch ‘The Jerk’.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-jerk/

Watched on Sunday September 22, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-monster-club/4/

Watched on Wednesday September 11, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/hundreds-of-beavers/1/

Probably the 3rd time watching this movie, i’d previously seen the MST3K riffed version (Go Packers!), unriffed and tonight, it was the turn of the ‘Rifftrax’ crew to give this uncomfortably incestuous picture a run through the ringer

It’s exactly what it says on the tin, a meteorite containing dozens of diamond hard spider eggs crash land in a field in the mid west prompting 2 or 3 storylines revolving around a dollar tree Tom Atkins and his science partner lab tech friend trying to find the location of the meteor (and theres something about a black hole going on) and the main plotline revolves around a small hillbilly cluster family who find some of the eggs, hatch them and unleash…THE GIANT SPIDER INVASION!!!

Theres a good reason this one is a prime returning candidate for riffers old and new. The script feels like an automatic writing experiment gone awry, the pacings awful, the tone is dryer and stodgier than unbuttered bread and just plane icky at points with Alcoholic mums hitting on 15 year olds, and incestuous uncles trying to coeerce underage nieces into awkward positions for fake diamonds…its…an experience…make no mistake. The act structuring is sloppy with no clear raising or lowering of the stakes, and the film abruptly ends with a resolution that comes out of left field and feels rushed.

The directions more competant than SOME of this films peers…but that really isnt saying much, again its overly basic, doesnt really follow the ‘rules of film’ and doesnt feel particularly ‘refreshing’ to sit through.

the cine is rushed, with poor compositions and strange B-roll choice, the editing is atrocious, with a lot of the sound effects and music cues getting abruptly cut off before they’re even halfway through playing.

The performances are atrocious, everyone looks like they’re on the verge of severe heart failure. exhausted, tired, sweaty, barely able to remember their lines…this cast look like they begrudge having to physically act in this thing…its amazing.

One of the more infamous entries from Bill Rebane, The Giant Spider Invasion is a bizarre film…but one I do ultimately have a bit of a soft spot for. The Rifftrax crew did a pretty good job on this one with some really funny bits a couple big hitters and their short to open proceedings was equally hilarious. I do still think the MST3K version is my preferred way to catch this one…But this more than scratches the itch.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/rifftrax-live-giant-spider-invasion-2019/

Kicking off my Fall season this year, I decided to join some friends on a podcast to discuss ‘The Hollow’ a modern day sequel to the ‘Headless Horseman’ story thats really more like an extended high school melodrama than a horror film honestly.

The plot is set in the modern day of 2004, and a young high school student looking to branch into local history has taken a job talking about the tale of the headless hoseman in sleepy hollow. Its initially played as just that, a fictional tale, but after a chance encounter with a gravekeeper, its revealed that theres more to the myth than first meets the eye and that our hapless local historian may in fact be a long lost descendant of Ichabod Crane.

With a growing love triangle emerging out of left field between a Jock, our hero and the head of the cheerleading team COMBINED with a subplot about our lead and his dad not having the best relationship in the world…The annual Halloween Hayride may be thrown into chaos when the headless horseman seemingly returns from the grave.

This one? was dull. painfully dull. A good friend of mine put it best ‘There are ‘Horror’ movies, and ‘Halloween’ movies…This is a Halloween movie’ and its true. The horseman himself appears for around 30 seconds in the first 12 minutes of the movie and then isnt seen again until the 50 minute mark of the film, The movie itself has 5 minutes of end credits and 3 minutes of opening titles making the just over an hour and 22 minutes ACTUALLY an hour and 17, and basically the entire movie struggles to deliver on the premise almost immediately.

The opening act is split down the middle, with the first half of act 1 more than meeting the brief in setting up a ‘modern’ sleepy hollow sequel. But the second half of the first HEAVILY deviates into what is essentially a ‘Dawsons creek’ style high school drama…the grave keepers appearence is welcome, but he’s basically just doing a dollar store ‘Crazy Ralph’ impression that doesnt grow much beyond that. Amazingly, he’s probably the best thing in this film and he seems to largely understand that this film ISNT going to be the next great work, and so he kind of leans into a not *too* serious quasi comedy portrayal for the character. Which was very endearing.

The 2nd act is a flabby stodge of high school drama and the gravekeeper trying to convince our lead that nefarious happenings are occuring…which leads us to a 3rd act finale thats *fine*, but left quite a bit to be desired and ended VERY abruptly and without logical reason.

The tone of this things all over the place, I dont think they knew for sure whether they wanted to be VERY serious or a little tongue in cheek, so they try both and it ends up not quite achieving either. the pacing is criminally slow for most of the runtime as the film DESPERATELY tries to hit TV movie feature runtime…

It seems to REALLY want to do gore and proper horror, but because this film was seemingly produced for the ABC Family channel, it means all but one of the kills happens off screen, and the ONE sex scene in the film contains no nudity, no visual sex and ends with one of the worst decapitation scenes i’ve seen in a good while.

Non of the characters have any sense of depth or detail. What you see is what you get, they’re all one note, stereotypes of the type of character they’re supposed to be, so the Jock is THE jockiest jock, the football dad is THE most negative toxic one note football dad you’ve seen.

Because theres no depth, once you get who these characters are, it quickly dries the whole film out, as you realise, these characters arnt going to grow and develop across the runtime. This is all theres going to be for the 83 minutes (+commercials)

Put it this way, if I was checking this out, looking to scratch a horror itch. I’d have been VERY dissapointed. this is a film that trades more on vibes than anything else, and even than…its not particularly great at that.

The direction and cine are ‘fine’ all things considered. I didnt love it, the creative decision to add a little camera sway to most of the shots, I believe was intended to give a sense of unease…but ultimately, it felt forced and didnt suit the scenarios at hand. the colour grade choices were overly basic and kind of poor…its basically desaturated and tinted orange…the fact they’ve black crushed all the night footage too makes a lot of the 3rd act pretty painful to sit through, because you stuggle to see whats actually going on, and what you can see is edited so feverishly it makes it hard to absorb.

Compositions overly basic and a little dry, its a step up from the SOV circuit at the time…but not by much, and the edit is breakneck and frankly unpleasent in places.

The performances are all equally one note, and quite dry. With only Stacy Keach as the gravekeeper really having ANY kind of memorable/notable character within the piece…Everyone else (including star to be Kaley Cuoco) were just utterly forgettable and lacked any real kind of on screen presence.

And the soundtrack is THE most generic early 2000’s grunge score you’ve ever heard in your life.

Oh…and as an aside (because the world NEEDS TO KNOW!) there are several scenes where Ian (our main character) and his mum have heart to hearts…the way those scenes are shot though are VERY weirdly arranged and give the impression they’re romantically involved. In fact during the first altercation between them, I missed the fact she was Ians mum and thought they were dating…its SO weird…

The Hollow is about as generic as they come for low budget early 2000s horror/vibe movies. It lacks any kind of depth or ‘bite’ that would have really kept me watching, it feels rushed in some places, dragged out WAY past the reasonable limits in others and the near total lack of gore or on screen kills really hampers an already yawn worthy production. I wasnt a fan of this, I cant recommend it and im almost certain there are other better ‘sleep hollow’ adjacent productions out there…Dull.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-hollow/

No Notes.

Its an extended episode of the Batman ’66 tv series but with a bigger budget and better effects, it carries over wonderfully, everyones giving 100% and camping it up to the max.

The only thing I can think is it maybe would be interesting to see this edited into a 4 part TV special, or to see it re-edited into a 90 minute ‘TV Movie’ length.

Otherwise? for what this is trying to achieve. it ABSOLUTELY nails the assignment.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/batman-1966/

John Waters Penuiltimate work to date, ‘Cecil B. Demented’ feels like a refreshing return to form for the film maker, after a near 10 year run of inconsistent stabs at finding his place within the (at the time) ‘modern’ cinema landscape.

The film follows Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) a snobby and high strung professional film actress who, while attending a gala premiere of her latest ‘Oscar worthy’ work, finds herself kidnapped and pulled into the cult of Cecil B. Demented. an underground film maker with a cult like following who believe in the concept of ‘Reality cinema’ the idea being that you pre-film some scenes as lynchpins and then shoot the ACTUAL movie in a real public place, with unsuspecting members of the public present who are encouraged to work to Cecils demands…or face the ‘night night’ end of a pistol.

With the police hot on their trail and a growing opposition from hollywood and industry execs. Cecil and his team have taken a vow of celibacy until the film is complete because ‘the film comes first’ at all costs.

And after struggling a bit with ‘Cry Baby’, not quite fully loving ‘Serial Mom’ and drumming my fingers throughout ‘Pecker’ This film really does seem to recapture a sense of anarchic and controversial naughty fun that I loved about John Waters pseudo studio era (Female trouble, Desperate Living, Polyester).

The script is littered with references to cult and outsider film makers, it gets the balance of being lightweight enough to enagage people unfamiliar with cult, but complex enough to keep long time Waters followers bedded in just about right for most of the runtime, and clocking in at an hour and 29 it really doesnt waste much time.

Theres a nice clear story at the heart of this one, with a soldily paced out 3 act structure which transitions decently. While it does lean a little towards the repetative (with the main body of the shooting scenes getting numbingly repatitious in particular) the humour and tone are really why your paying to see this thing.

John Waters writing here is razor, critical and delivered with absolute perfection by the cast, its a very quotable movie with some fab one liners and some real creative fire behind the plotting itself. I laughed my way through most of this movie and really quite enjoyed the idea of Waters both lambasting the hollywood system, while also turning the light inwards to those weird ‘outsider’ film makers who think they’re significantly better than everyone else. Which I acutally kind of respected.

the characters all have their own unique personalities and complexities, though it does feel weird seeing these characters that were clearly written with Johns old ‘Wrecking crew’ in mind, getting played by a new stable of actors.

The directions rock solid, an structured production with a clean creative vision behind it that even bothers to experiment a little beyodn the usual generic scene structuring rules. The set design in this one really helps give the production a big boost, and if I were a gambling man, i’d put money on Waters being influenced here by the 1989 erotic ‘equal’ “Dr. Caligari” as there are moments in this that look/feel very similar to that movie.

Direction of the cast for the most part is pretty solid too, i’d argue that this is realistically the most naturalistic a cast has appeared in a John Waters movie. the delivery is over the top and manic for the most part, but for this cast? it feels genuine. A lot of other Waters movies have cast members who dont quite look/feel right delivering loud, aggressive toned works..but here, I think they’ve been carefully guided and instructed and I think they do a great job.

The cine too is delightful, hyper colourful, vivid set design REALLY helps give the camera a lot to work with, composition is rock sold throughout, while it may be a little generically sequenced in places, it more than makes up for it with some genuinely surreal moments and the brave move in not being afraid to experiment with sequence structuring.

The edit is relatively tight, as with most films I do feel this could have stood to have been 5-10 minutes shorter, but on the whole its a really well assembled production and probably the best cut John Waters movie i’ve ever seen.

The performances also really help here, with a wide variety of character types on display, it means you get all the different flavours of ‘Waters’ characters from over the years perfectly curated, and im certain there’ll be at least one performance here that you’ll really enjoy, if not all of them.

For me, it has to be Griffiths as ‘Honey’ she really gets a meaty shot here at a character with a decent growth piece, and she transitions between snobby and dismissive, to defeated, to slowly warming to the cultish ideology to eventually a full embrace of it, working through all the emotions involved in that along the way. I think she’s fabulous for every minute she’s on screen, her physicality is subdued, which I think works in the films favour, but her delivery for me was what really sealed the deal.

Thow in a VERY aggressive and gritty 2000s punk soundtrack, intercut with 50s jukebox classics and old movie studio stings and I had a really good time with ‘Cecil’. It felt like a confident return to form for the director, While it is a little bit of a downer that Johns period of experimentation in style and writing didnt yield any new strings to his bow in terms of areas to grow into. I feel like his work between 1990 and 1999 helped make him a much more confident director and writer, and by this point. I feel like he was able to transplant his newly learnt skills straight into his old stomping ground, and he works WONDERS with it.

Definitely recommended if your a fan of films like ‘Female Trouble’ or ‘Polyester’, I think you may come away a bit dissapointed if you preferred Waters more ‘gross out’ and gritty era of film making, but in terms of his latter day works? this is one of the best.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/cecil-b-demented/

Watched on Monday August 26, 2024.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/halloween-resurrection/1/