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JANUARY 9, 2011
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer and raconteur
Posted: October 29, 2010 05:33 PM
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6Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyHalloween DVDs: The Exorcist,
Psycho, Troll 2 and More
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Read More: Halloween , Halloween 2010 , Halloween Movies , Psycho , Scary Movies , The Exorcist , Troll 2 ,
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Boo! Did it work? Did I scare you? If that didn't do the trick, try some of these new DVDs that came out
in the last few weeks.
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Thousands Of Birds Found
Dead In Italy
Recommend 37K
Recommend 7K
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Recommend 36K
THE EXORCIST ON BLURAY ($34.99; Warner Bros.) --This two-disc, compact but gratifyingly
thorough set is a model of what classic movie releases should be. It's not crazily expensive (you can find
it for $24 on sale) and it's not in some bulky, annoying package that you immediately have to store in acloset. The set provides both the 2000 Extended Director's Cut and (this is most important) the original1973 theatrical version. I don't care how much a director wants to improve their movie; you should
always include the original version that proved such a success. Each disc contains trailers and ad spots
for their edition of the film. You also get a very extensive new documentary that talks with everyone plusa 1998 British TV documentary about the making of the film. Director William Friedkin offers twocommentaries and writer/producer William Peter Blatty does one as well.
Star Linda Blair suggested that only a child who was Catholic would have succeeded in the role because
to her, the Devil was real, not some imaginary hobgoblin. Friedkin joked that with time he had become
"somewhat less" egotistical and was generous with his praise for the cast and crew and Blatty. Needless tosay, the film looks terrific as well.
Some people finger Jaws and Star Wars as the two movies that triggered a wholesale change in
Hollywood towards blockbusters and massive releases. But you could just as easily pinpoint the change
with The Godfather and The Exorcist, both of which were astonishingly popular. The Exorcist has
grossed more than $400 million worldwide to date and entered the popular consciousness as few films
ever have. You can't see a head spinning around without thinking of Linda Blair. Just this week it wasspoofed in the Shrek Halloween special in a segment called "The Shrekorcist." They boast that it's "the
scariest movie of all time" without seeming to be bragging. Certainly, if you want to experience at home,this edition is the way to go. I first watched the film alone. On Halloween. In the dark. If you haven't seenit yet, isn't this the perfect time?
PSYCHO ($26.98 BluRay; Universal) -- For a long time, Psycho was lower on my list of favorite
Hitchcock films. The Lady Vanishes, Rear Window, Notorious, North By Northwest and the like all
scored higher with me. I appreciated Psycho but found it too basic, too obvious and the ending tootricksy to satisfy somehow. But it's Alfred Hitchcock so of course you cross paths with the film again. Andeach time I found it stranger, more interesting, more...odd than just the most sophisticated slasher filmof them all. Then I went looking for a quote to use about the rain on my radio show at the time. Finally, I
was able to see how bold and unconventional it is. Not just the disappearance of the "lead" in the early
going. But that incredibly lengthy scene between Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh where they talk and
1 of 5
Alan Grayson
Gabby Giffords: A Few Words
Dylan Ratigan
A Destructive CrossroadsDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS
HOT TRENDS
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talk and then share a bite and talk some more. Perkins is so good, so intriguing as Norman -- it's really
quite moving. His character is so full and rich, the last thing you're doing is waiting for the violence to
explode. And of course the film has so many innovative aspects, despite being shot in a down and dirty
manner Hitchcock embraced for his TV anthology series. You get loads of extras including commentaryby Stephen Rebello, the author of a book on the making of this film. You also get Truffaut's interviewexcerpts with Hitch, which is as close to a full commentary from him as we'll ever have. imagine what a
treat that would be: Hitchcock holding forth in droll glory for nearly two hours. Who knows? Maybe
Shadow Of A Doubt will grow on me too and I'll finally agree with Hitchcock that that's his greatest film.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW ($34.99; FOX) -- The most successful midnight movie of
all time may not be suitable for a high school production (duh, Mr Schuester!). Heck, it may not even be
suitable for home viewing. Truly, the movie is pretty awful unless you see it with a crowd in a theater OR
bring friends over, switch to the version that let's you see and hear the audience respond to all theprompts and prepare a lot of toast. The usual fun extras including a sing-along, outtakes, an alternateopener and more.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE ($24.98 IFC) -- Let me be absolutely clear. I have not watched The
Human Centipede . I am not going to watch The Human Centipede. My friend Aaron tells me it's actually
quite well done (and he's no horror fanatic) but I don't care. Just talking about the movie makes me
squeamish. That's the sort of opener that will send some of you scurrying to add it to your Netflix. The
setup is simple. A doctor who specializes in separating conjoined twins now wants to create a new being:he's kidnapped a Japanese businessman and now is going to surgically attach two women -- mouth to
anus -- behind him to create...the human centipede. And then he does it. I'm out of here.TOP VIDEO PICKS
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IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN ($24.98 on BluRay; Warner Bros.) -- What a
relief to turn to something as decent and Norman Rockwell-ish as this Peanuts special. To me, it's easily
the best of the bunch after A Charlie Brown Christmas. And as Linus endures the mockery of everyone in
his lonely desire to spot the Great Pumpkin, it's rather pointed and touching on matters of faith. You also
get It's Magic, Charlie Brown and a featurette. As a TV special, it's delightful. But at nearly $20 even on
sale, it's quite pricey. Here's hoping they do on BluRay what they did on DVD: collect all the specials for
inexpensive sets.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate) -- More interesting as a phenomenon
than a movie, The Blair Witch Project is the lo-fi clever stunt of a horror film put out on BluRay with the
bells and whistles it deserves. Alternate endings, commentary, a look at the film's legacy in indie
filmmaking and pop culture and the other usual suspects. Still, you have to admire the movie's refusal toexplain it all or give a "satisfying" ending. Breaking the rules is always a smart move, especially on a no-
budgeter hoping to gain attention.
NFL
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Haiti
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SPLICE ($35.99 BluRay and $28.98 regular DVD; Warner Bros.)
PREDATORS ($39.99 BluRay or $29.98 regular; FOX) -- It may star Oscar winner Adrien Brody and
the talented Sarah Polley but this is a B movie through and through, which is a good thing. Two scientists
desperate to keep their project afloat genetically splice human DNA with a different animal to create anentirely new creature. Naturally, they keep it in the barn where the creature blossoms into a scary/sadbeast with childlike feelings and a desire to please, really please, Brody at the expense of Polley. What I
found fascinating about the film was the misogyny that runs through it: Polley is a harridan who keeps
Brody in line and everyone comments on it. Then she pushes him to this godlike hubris. And whose DNAdoes she use? This from a woman who resists marriage and doesn't want children. No surer sign of a
female character's evilness is his disinterest or refusal to reproduce. This isn't a strand of the film or a
feminist interpretation: it IS the film and Brody must dominate and defeat Polley (i.e grow a pair, to usea caveman term) in order to survive. The tale itself is familiar and not spiced up in any new way so the
misogyny angle is the only thing giving this film any interest. Brody also stars in the Predators sequel
which most fans considered the best in the series since the original, which is faint praise but still praise
nonetheless.
TROLL 2 ($19.99 BluRay: MGM) -- Should the worst film ever made even want to be on BluRay?
Shouldn't it stick to grainy VHS and midnight movie houses? All genuinely bad movies (which must bemade with passion and a belief that they're good to be really bad) work far far better with a crowd. But if
you must watch it at home, by all means invite your friends over. It's silly to laugh all by yourself.
HAMMER HORROR: TCM GREATEST CLASSIC FILMS ($27.98; Warner Bros.) -- Before gore
and sexual violence became the norm, horror was once a B movie genre with flair, and no one offered
quality spookiness better than the British label Hammer. They tackled the classics with aplomb, and hereyou get two Draculas and two Frankensteins: Horrors of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave,The Curse Of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. (Even their titles are fun.) Peter
Cushing stars in all four, with Christopher Lee in three of them as the vampire and the beast. Solid fun.
ALTITUDE ($34.98 BluRay and $26.97 regular; Anchor Bay) -- Small plane with passengers is menaced
by a terrible storm and some sort of flying octopus-like creature. Reminds you, naturally, of the TwilightZone episode with William Shatner, but with more comely young people and no suspense over whether
they're imagining it or not. Directed by Canadian Kaare Andrews, who got his start as an award-winning
comic book writer and illustrator.
*****
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and alsoavailable for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and
reviews .
NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs to consider for review. He typically does not
guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more screeners and DVDs than he can cover each
week. Also, Michael Giltz freelances as a writer of DVD copy (the text that appears on the back ofDVDs) for some titles released by IFC and other subsidiaries of MPI. It helps pay the rent, but does not
obligate him in any way to speak positively or negatively of their titles.
Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz
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Although of course the #1 classic here is "Psycho" I would not put "The Exorcist" that far behind.
What makes Exorcist an "art film" as well as a pop classic is the way Frankenhei mer stubbornly
refuses not to take his subject matter completely seriously and presents it in the most natural andlogical way possible. That's what makes it completely terrirfyin g.
I also think "The Blair Witch Project" for similar reasons, is nearly a complete success. Thefilmmakers courageous ly break rules and refuse to compromise with convention s.
As David's comment below illustrate s, Hitchcock' s work on Psycho will be analyzed by film buffs
forever. And righfully so: it's a virtual encycloped ia of film method. But it's a pity that too often in our
enthusiasm to praise Hitchcock we forget to acknowledg e that Perkins gives one of the very best
performanc es in the history of American cinema, an achievemen t made even more impressive by
the knowledge that Hitchcock gave his actors notoriousl y little direction.
What's so masterful about Hitchcock' s approach to film-makin g is on textbook display in Psycho. It's
all about thwarting audience expectatio ns. You set them up and then knock 'em down. The scene
where Norman and Marion chat has an undercurre nt of tension, but it's ultimately fairly comforting .
Marion has realized she's gone down the wrong path and she's going to right her wrong. Normanseems sad, but he's very amicable, Perkins plays this just right. Then, wham! The whole plot,carefully crafted for 40 minutes, is totally derailed. Audience expectatio n turns to the money Marion
has stolen. The camera pans over it several times as it sits wrapped in a newspaper. Again,masterful craft here. And again our expectatio ns get the smack-down . Throughout the rest of film
what is anticipate d is not what happens. This is more than just 'the twist', a popular plot device in
Hollywood today since the success of The Sixth Sense, it's audience manipulati on from the bottom
up, not the top down. It begins with the very first scene which quotes the time as 2:43. 2:43? Whyso precise? Well, precision is the name of the game here and it's about to work on your head withthe camera as the surgeon's scalpel. Psycho is the horror masterpiec e against which all other
horror films bear comparison .Recency | Popularity
FirstGame72 12:32 PM on 11/01/2010
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3fingerbrown 05:41 PM on 10/31/2010
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David Durham 10:04 AM on 10/31/2010
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173 Fans
366 Fans
31 FansNice assesment. It takes a truly great artist to have the courage and vision to go
completely outside of the convetnion s of a medium and make it work completely .
It is no accident that Mr. Hitchcock is pretty much the undisputed greatest english languagefilm director pre 1960's.
Psycho without the music wouldn't be anywhere near the classic it is. Watching it with the sound offwill prove that.
The music helped but, Perkins had a good hand in it as well.
FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
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FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS MEDIA ENTERTAINMENT COMEDY SPORTS STYLE WORLD GREEN FOOD TRAVEL TECH
LIVING HEALTH DIVORCE ARTS BOOKS RELIGION IMPACT EDUCATION COLLEGE NY LA CHICAGO DENVER BLOGS
Michael Giltz
Freelance writer and raconteur
Posted: October 29, 2010 05:33 PM
BIO
Become a Fan
Get Email Alerts
Bloggers' Index
0
9
views
0
6Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyHalloween DVDs: The Exorcist,
Psycho, Troll 2 and More
What's Your Reaction:
Read More: Halloween , Halloween 2010 , Halloween Movies , Psycho , Scary Movies , The Exorcist , Troll 2 ,
Entertainment News
Boo! Did it work? Did I scare you? If that didn't do the trick, try some of these new DVDs that came out
in the last few weeks.
MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOSTBIG NEWS: Movies | Gwyneth Paltrow | The Kardashians | Bristol Palin | Smarter Ideas | More...
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LIVE UPDATES: Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Shot, Federal Judge KilledGet Breaking News by Email
SHARE THIS STORY
Like
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Email Comments 6
Democratic Rep. Shot,
Federal Judge Killed At
Public Event
Suspected Arizona Shooter
Identified: Disturbing
YouTube Videos, MySpace
Camille Grammer's Porn
Past Comes Back To Haunt
Her
Intestinal Parasites May Be
Causing Your Energy
Slump
Should The Leader Of The
Free World Dress Like
THIS?
What Not To Say When
Your Loved One Is Upset
GOP Congresswoman
Caught In Sexually
Suggestive Photos
Thousands Of Birds Found
Dead In Italy
Recommend 37K
Recommend 7K
Like 893
Like 905
Like 658
Like 671
Like 720
Recommend 36K
THE EXORCIST ON BLURAY ($34.99; Warner Bros.) --This two-disc, compact but gratifyingly
thorough set is a model of what classic movie releases should be. It's not crazily expensive (you can find
it for $24 on sale) and it's not in some bulky, annoying package that you immediately have to store in acloset. The set provides both the 2000 Extended Director's Cut and (this is most important) the original1973 theatrical version. I don't care how much a director wants to improve their movie; you should
always include the original version that proved such a success. Each disc contains trailers and ad spots
for their edition of the film. You also get a very extensive new documentary that talks with everyone plusa 1998 British TV documentary about the making of the film. Director William Friedkin offers twocommentaries and writer/producer William Peter Blatty does one as well.
Star Linda Blair suggested that only a child who was Catholic would have succeeded in the role because
to her, the Devil was real, not some imaginary hobgoblin. Friedkin joked that with time he had become
"somewhat less" egotistical and was generous with his praise for the cast and crew and Blatty. Needless tosay, the film looks terrific as well.
Some people finger Jaws and Star Wars as the two movies that triggered a wholesale change in
Hollywood towards blockbusters and massive releases. But you could just as easily pinpoint the change
with The Godfather and The Exorcist, both of which were astonishingly popular. The Exorcist has
grossed more than $400 million worldwide to date and entered the popular consciousness as few films
ever have. You can't see a head spinning around without thinking of Linda Blair. Just this week it wasspoofed in the Shrek Halloween special in a segment called "The Shrekorcist." They boast that it's "the
scariest movie of all time" without seeming to be bragging. Certainly, if you want to experience at home,this edition is the way to go. I first watched the film alone. On Halloween. In the dark. If you haven't seenit yet, isn't this the perfect time?
PSYCHO ($26.98 BluRay; Universal) -- For a long time, Psycho was lower on my list of favorite
Hitchcock films. The Lady Vanishes, Rear Window, Notorious, North By Northwest and the like all
scored higher with me. I appreciated Psycho but found it too basic, too obvious and the ending tootricksy to satisfy somehow. But it's Alfred Hitchcock so of course you cross paths with the film again. Andeach time I found it stranger, more interesting, more...odd than just the most sophisticated slasher filmof them all. Then I went looking for a quote to use about the rain on my radio show at the time. Finally, I
was able to see how bold and unconventional it is. Not just the disappearance of the "lead" in the early
going. But that incredibly lengthy scene between Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh where they talk and
1 of 5
Alan Grayson
Gabby Giffords: A Few Words
Dylan Ratigan
A Destructive CrossroadsDON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS
HOT TRENDS
jwoww naked miley
cyrus lap dance video natalie
portman natalie
portman pregnant
snooki nude
More Celebrity News at People.com
PHOTOS: Raven-Symone's
Dramatic Weight Loss
Like 720
Congresswoman Gabrielle
Giffords In 'Very Critical
Condition' After Shooting
READ MORE
Kate Middleton Joins
Future In-Laws at Weekend
Wedding
READ MORE
BUZZ: Are Zac Efron &
Vanessa Hudgens Back
On?
READ MORE
Willliam and Kate's Love
Story
talk and then share a bite and talk some more. Perkins is so good, so intriguing as Norman -- it's really
quite moving. His character is so full and rich, the last thing you're doing is waiting for the violence to
explode. And of course the film has so many innovative aspects, despite being shot in a down and dirty
manner Hitchcock embraced for his TV anthology series. You get loads of extras including commentaryby Stephen Rebello, the author of a book on the making of this film. You also get Truffaut's interviewexcerpts with Hitch, which is as close to a full commentary from him as we'll ever have. imagine what a
treat that would be: Hitchcock holding forth in droll glory for nearly two hours. Who knows? Maybe
Shadow Of A Doubt will grow on me too and I'll finally agree with Hitchcock that that's his greatest film.
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW ($34.99; FOX) -- The most successful midnight movie of
all time may not be suitable for a high school production (duh, Mr Schuester!). Heck, it may not even be
suitable for home viewing. Truly, the movie is pretty awful unless you see it with a crowd in a theater OR
bring friends over, switch to the version that let's you see and hear the audience respond to all theprompts and prepare a lot of toast. The usual fun extras including a sing-along, outtakes, an alternateopener and more.
THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE ($24.98 IFC) -- Let me be absolutely clear. I have not watched The
Human Centipede . I am not going to watch The Human Centipede. My friend Aaron tells me it's actually
quite well done (and he's no horror fanatic) but I don't care. Just talking about the movie makes me
squeamish. That's the sort of opener that will send some of you scurrying to add it to your Netflix. The
setup is simple. A doctor who specializes in separating conjoined twins now wants to create a new being:he's kidnapped a Japanese businessman and now is going to surgically attach two women -- mouth to
anus -- behind him to create...the human centipede. And then he does it. I'm out of here.TOP VIDEO PICKS
Queen's Royal Wedding
Rift
Kourtney K.'s StunningBikini Bod
Jane Krakowski RevealsBaby Bump
1 of 9
MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW
HOT ON FACEBOOK
HOT ON TWITTER
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Palin's Alaska' NOT
Renewed: Report
1,236 Comments
Esteemed Film Critic
Group Picks The Year's
Best Movie
9 Comments
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Past Comes Back To
Haunt Her
1,031 Comments
PHOTOS: Olivia Wilde
Dons See-Through Bikini
106 Comments
Ashton Kutcher: Training,
Paranoid About Real Life
'End Of Days'
904 Comments
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Stranger's Karaoke Party
66 CommentsThere's No Viral Video Like'Home'
Michelle Williams on
Keeping Heath's MemoryAlive
IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN ($24.98 on BluRay; Warner Bros.) -- What a
relief to turn to something as decent and Norman Rockwell-ish as this Peanuts special. To me, it's easily
the best of the bunch after A Charlie Brown Christmas. And as Linus endures the mockery of everyone in
his lonely desire to spot the Great Pumpkin, it's rather pointed and touching on matters of faith. You also
get It's Magic, Charlie Brown and a featurette. As a TV special, it's delightful. But at nearly $20 even on
sale, it's quite pricey. Here's hoping they do on BluRay what they did on DVD: collect all the specials for
inexpensive sets.
THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT ($19.99 BluRay; Lionsgate) -- More interesting as a phenomenon
than a movie, The Blair Witch Project is the lo-fi clever stunt of a horror film put out on BluRay with the
bells and whistles it deserves. Alternate endings, commentary, a look at the film's legacy in indie
filmmaking and pop culture and the other usual suspects. Still, you have to admire the movie's refusal toexplain it all or give a "satisfying" ending. Breaking the rules is always a smart move, especially on a no-
budgeter hoping to gain attention.
NFL
House Of
Representatives
Video
Gun Control
iPad
Haiti
Earthquake
Atheism
Sarah Palin
MORE BIG NEWS PAGES »
FOLLOW HUFFINGTON POST
SPLICE ($35.99 BluRay and $28.98 regular DVD; Warner Bros.)
PREDATORS ($39.99 BluRay or $29.98 regular; FOX) -- It may star Oscar winner Adrien Brody and
the talented Sarah Polley but this is a B movie through and through, which is a good thing. Two scientists
desperate to keep their project afloat genetically splice human DNA with a different animal to create anentirely new creature. Naturally, they keep it in the barn where the creature blossoms into a scary/sadbeast with childlike feelings and a desire to please, really please, Brody at the expense of Polley. What I
found fascinating about the film was the misogyny that runs through it: Polley is a harridan who keeps
Brody in line and everyone comments on it. Then she pushes him to this godlike hubris. And whose DNAdoes she use? This from a woman who resists marriage and doesn't want children. No surer sign of a
female character's evilness is his disinterest or refusal to reproduce. This isn't a strand of the film or a
feminist interpretation: it IS the film and Brody must dominate and defeat Polley (i.e grow a pair, to usea caveman term) in order to survive. The tale itself is familiar and not spiced up in any new way so the
misogyny angle is the only thing giving this film any interest. Brody also stars in the Predators sequel
which most fans considered the best in the series since the original, which is faint praise but still praise
nonetheless.
TROLL 2 ($19.99 BluRay: MGM) -- Should the worst film ever made even want to be on BluRay?
Shouldn't it stick to grainy VHS and midnight movie houses? All genuinely bad movies (which must bemade with passion and a belief that they're good to be really bad) work far far better with a crowd. But if
you must watch it at home, by all means invite your friends over. It's silly to laugh all by yourself.
HAMMER HORROR: TCM GREATEST CLASSIC FILMS ($27.98; Warner Bros.) -- Before gore
and sexual violence became the norm, horror was once a B movie genre with flair, and no one offered
quality spookiness better than the British label Hammer. They tackled the classics with aplomb, and hereyou get two Draculas and two Frankensteins: Horrors of Dracula, Dracula Has Risen From The Grave,The Curse Of Frankenstein and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed. (Even their titles are fun.) Peter
Cushing stars in all four, with Christopher Lee in three of them as the vampire and the beast. Solid fun.
ALTITUDE ($34.98 BluRay and $26.97 regular; Anchor Bay) -- Small plane with passengers is menaced
by a terrible storm and some sort of flying octopus-like creature. Reminds you, naturally, of the TwilightZone episode with William Shatner, but with more comely young people and no suspense over whether
they're imagining it or not. Directed by Canadian Kaare Andrews, who got his start as an award-winning
comic book writer and illustrator.
*****
Thanks for reading. Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that
reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinionmakers as guests. It's available free on iTunes. Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.
Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and alsoavailable for free on iTunes. Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and
reviews .
NOTE: Michael Giltz is provided with free copies of DVDs to consider for review. He typically does not
guarantee coverage and invariably receives far more screeners and DVDs than he can cover each
week. Also, Michael Giltz freelances as a writer of DVD copy (the text that appears on the back ofDVDs) for some titles released by IFC and other subsidiaries of MPI. It helps pay the rent, but does not
obligate him in any way to speak positively or negatively of their titles.
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Although of course the #1 classic here is "Psycho" I would not put "The Exorcist" that far behind.
What makes Exorcist an "art film" as well as a pop classic is the way Frankenhei mer stubbornly
refuses not to take his subject matter completely seriously and presents it in the most natural andlogical way possible. That's what makes it completely terrirfyin g.
I also think "The Blair Witch Project" for similar reasons, is nearly a complete success. Thefilmmakers courageous ly break rules and refuse to compromise with convention s.
As David's comment below illustrate s, Hitchcock' s work on Psycho will be analyzed by film buffs
forever. And righfully so: it's a virtual encycloped ia of film method. But it's a pity that too often in our
enthusiasm to praise Hitchcock we forget to acknowledg e that Perkins gives one of the very best
performanc es in the history of American cinema, an achievemen t made even more impressive by
the knowledge that Hitchcock gave his actors notoriousl y little direction.
What's so masterful about Hitchcock' s approach to film-makin g is on textbook display in Psycho. It's
all about thwarting audience expectatio ns. You set them up and then knock 'em down. The scene
where Norman and Marion chat has an undercurre nt of tension, but it's ultimately fairly comforting .
Marion has realized she's gone down the wrong path and she's going to right her wrong. Normanseems sad, but he's very amicable, Perkins plays this just right. Then, wham! The whole plot,carefully crafted for 40 minutes, is totally derailed. Audience expectatio n turns to the money Marion
has stolen. The camera pans over it several times as it sits wrapped in a newspaper. Again,masterful craft here. And again our expectatio ns get the smack-down . Throughout the rest of film
what is anticipate d is not what happens. This is more than just 'the twist', a popular plot device in
Hollywood today since the success of The Sixth Sense, it's audience manipulati on from the bottom
up, not the top down. It begins with the very first scene which quotes the time as 2:43. 2:43? Whyso precise? Well, precision is the name of the game here and it's about to work on your head withthe camera as the surgeon's scalpel. Psycho is the horror masterpiec e against which all other
horror films bear comparison .Recency | Popularity
FirstGame72 12:32 PM on 11/01/2010
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3fingerbrown 05:41 PM on 10/31/2010
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David Durham 10:04 AM on 10/31/2010
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173 Fans
366 Fans
31 FansNice assesment. It takes a truly great artist to have the courage and vision to go
completely outside of the convetnion s of a medium and make it work completely .
It is no accident that Mr. Hitchcock is pretty much the undisputed greatest english languagefilm director pre 1960's.
Psycho without the music wouldn't be anywhere near the classic it is. Watching it with the sound offwill prove that.
The music helped but, Perkins had a good hand in it as well.
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FirstGame72 12:25 PM on 11/01/2010
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drxcreatures 06:12 AM on 12/27/2010
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