Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist
Alexandre O. Philippe has definitely found a solid place for himself, producing new looks at classics of horror cinema, such as 78/52 about Psycho and Memory: The Origins of Alien. This one is kind of different, as whilst the other films were general talking heads documentaries for the most part, with a whole bunch of panelists, this one is entirely built around a series of extended interviews, Hitchcock/Truffaut style, with William Friedkin himself, going through the creative process of making The Exorcist. Now I should mention something that back when The Exorcist got DVD re-releases and he was doing introductions for that, it was undeniably one of the things that inspired the character of Garth Marenghi. However, these days he seems to have mellowed out quite a bit, not least in having a look that's more like Adam West. He makes for a fascinating interviewee, with the odd weird tangent (like him confirming that he did get the occasional look of fright on people by firing blanks on set), but overall he comes across a lot more humble, freely admitting things about the film he didn't quite get, or were happy accidents. My favourite sections were where he gave full props to Merecedes McCambridge for providing the voice of the demon (something she wasn't credited with enough for many years), and when he talked to a lot of composers who's idea for the soundtrack really didn't fit the film at all. If you appreciate The Exorcist (hi Mark Kermode if you're reading this), it's a must watch for a fun alternate angle on the film, and how it's creator views it. He might have
Leap of Faith is awaiting an official release date.
The Antenna
If you have been following the world news, you probably know that there's a lot of bad, authoritarian stuff going on in Turkey at the moment, with its current president Erdoğan making a major crackdown on media critical of their government. This film from that nation is clearly an attempt to tell a parallel for that idea, about how propaganda, authoritarianism, and populist regimes are an insidious, invasive, and corrupting force. That's what it tries to be about, but unfortunately it kind of fails in that regard. There are whole sections of mock government rhetoric playing, which make clear what this film's intended message is, and it has a good concept for how to visualise this premise, with a black sludge invading the lives of the characters. The thing is, this concept isn't actually backed up by the actual story (and I'm using that term as broadly as I can) on screen. What happens with the black sludge (which only ever does visually interesting in a dream sequence) doesn't seem to fit the whole idea of corrupting influences, it just seems to cause accidents that could have easily happened without it. When making a metaphorical horror like this, you have to make sure that your monster, or whatever the stand-in for the issue is, fits the point in every way, make it consistent. This in itself might not be a dealbreaker, but the film is also too ponderous and self important for its own good; it tries rubbing your face in the ideas that aren't that deep, with shots that last about three times as long as they should, and a near interminable slow pace. There are good bits in here, visions of a better film with this premise trying to escape (like one section involving a VHS), but it fails to come together. Shame, this is the sort of thing I should be all over (one of my favourite films of all time is John Carpenter's They Live), but I really can't recommend it. However, I have some good news; there exists out there a film that follows a lot of the same themes, but works far better. It's a British film called Await Further Instructions, and it's on Netflix, DVD, and most streaming services now. Seriously, go watch that instead!
The Antenna is awaiting an official release date.
Wounds
Now this one I was very keen to see, as it's from director Babak Anvari who previously made the excellent Iranian ghost story (OK, djinn story) Under the Shadow. I'm happy to say it did not disappoint; it's pretty different in tone and style (being in English and present day for starters), but is a deeply unsettling piece of work. Anavari said that one of his goals was to make it like a relationship drama (such as Reality Bites) which sort of turns into something else, and it plays just like that, a potential date movie getting invaded by the Cthulhu Mythos. Armie Hammer is a fantastic lead, playing a character that, as the film goes on, reveals more and more about what a damaged individual he's been all along, whilst also doing that whole "go mad from the revelation" thing you expect from a cosmic horror tale. The rest of the cast are great too, including Zazie Beetz, and Dakota Johnson who goes as far away from her Fifty Shades role as she can get (she, like Robert Pattinson in a film I'll mention next time) seems have chosen something that will make fans that follow the franchise that made them a star flee in existential terror). The ending of this one is going to divide a lot of people, but personally I quite liked it, in that there's nothing I can't stand in horror films more than over explanation, I prefer it to hint, point to matters, and to leave us at the height of the terror. This is a very deeply unsettling ride, I am so glad I got to see this on the big screen; when it drops on Netflix, make sure you're in as dark a room as possible, and have a very good sound system or pair of headphones for the full effect.
Wounds will be available on Netflix from the 18th of October.
Next time, I discuss kindergarten teachers vs. the undead, Edward Cullen and The Green Goblin going insane together, and a gothic classic...
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