10 posts categorized "Gothic"

January 20, 2025

NOSFERATU

Jo JoWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

Punk heart still beating.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cheers!

ColeSmithey.com

 

Robert Eggers Digs His Own Grave

By Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.comIf you've seen Robert Eggers's excellent film "The Lighthouse," then you should have high expectations for how Eggers could approach the well-worn story of Irish novelist Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel "Dracula."

Sadly, you will be disappointed.

"The Lighthouse" is everything that "Nosferatu" is not — suspenseful, and dark in a terrifyingly human way.

There's not much humanity in this plot-crammed and poorly written "Nosferatu."

ColeSmithey.com

Eggers's inspiration arrives via Henrik Galeen's 1925 German expressionist script for F.W. Murnau's groundbreaking if politically problematic silent movie, considering its obvious racist underpinnings.

ColeSmithey.com

Overworked and under-edited, Robert Eggers's "Nosferatu" is not without its charms. Lily Rose Depp is a revelation in her exotic role as Ellen Hunter, a young, horny, nubile woman who offers herself up to the universe to be devoured by whatever form (alien, human, evil or otherwise) that comes through her open window.

Careful what you wish for.

ColeSmithey.com

A sleepy first act finally gives way to a late reveal of the monster. To be clear, Nosferatu is a hook-nosed freak of nature non-human creature, well except for his exposed penis.

ColeSmithey.com

Yes, "Peenee on set" was announced during the filming of the scene where Bill Skarsgård's Nosferatu shows up very nude, and sporting the most ridiculous mustache you've ever seen. 

ColeSmithey.com

This Nosferatu gives mustache rides. Now that's scary. Beauty and the beast indeed. Unlike Bela Lugosi's Dracula, this vampire is no charmer. Zero sex appeal on display.

"Nosferatu" is visually stunning but the screenwriting is not up to snuff by a lot.

Eggers is so obsessed with ticking off a checklist of details culled from every vampire movie ever made that he ties himself up. He employs tropes rather than imbuing the story with novel meaning. The movie goes so far as to throw in a gratuitous Exorcist scene that stumbles.

ColeSmithey.com

Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu The Vampyre" (1997) is a far superior to Eggers's film in every way. Herzog's movie is simply told in a hyper stylized yet sparse setting where fear and suspense breed.

ColeSmithey.com

Hell, Paul Morressey's 1974 cult classic "Blood For Dracula" is a damn sight better than Eggers's movie.

Robert Eggers has squandered a great opportunity to use Bram Stoker's novel as a leaping off narrative form from which to improvise his own cinematic narrative design of suspenseful intent. 

Where is your sense of Jazz improvisation Mr. Eggers?

Come on man; you're better than this.

ColeSmithey.com

If it were me I'd have cast Bill Skarsgård as Ellen Hunter's put-upon husband Thomas, and given the role of Nosferatu to his brother Alexander Skarsgård, who I might add would have been much more charming and dignified — think Astro-Hungarian Empire royalty.

I'd have played up suspense in the three hellhounds sequence where Thomas gets chased off a ledge into the abyss below. This sequence should be the centerpiece of the film.

ColeSmithey.com

I'd have let Thomas die from his fall, and have him communicate with Ellen telepathically (post-death) in her dreams as Ellen does with her domineering sex master Nosferatu. Nevermind that this vampire has all the appeal of a zombie meth addict with lesions all over his body that rebuke his gigantic well-groomed mustache.

ColeSmithey.com

"Nosferatu" is infuriating because of its cut-and-paste approach, and due to its lack of originality.

ColeSmithey.com

A miscast Willem Dafoe does the movie no favors as Professor Albin Eberhart von Franz, a Van Helsing archetype. This is the worst performance I've ever seen from Willem Dafoe.

Viggo Mortensen would have been much better casting.

ColeSmithey.com

I suppose this film's tag line, "Succumb to the Darkness" is an apt sentiment in the age of global warming and yet another Trump era.

This vampire movie is perfectly watchable; you may feel inclined to nap during it. Don't worry, you won't miss much.

Rated R. 140 mins.

2 Stars

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

September 24, 2024

EYES WITHOUT A FACE — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.comMaster filmmaker Georges Franju had been making films for 25 years before he terrified audiences with "Eyes Without A Face" in 1960.

This groundbreaking horror movie significantly influenced Alfred Hitchcock, whose "Psycho" and "The Birds" owes "Eyes Without A Face" several obvious debts.

Agonizingly grotesque sequences are executed with admirably simple effects. 

ColeSmithey.com

Georges Franju uses a jarring soundscape to ratchet up suspense in a disquieting narrative about Dr. Génessier (Pierrre Brasseur), a mad doctor attempting a risky face-transplant for his horribly disfigured daughter, Christiane. The irritating sound of dogs barking sends chills down your spine.

Dr. Génessier keeps Christiane locked away in his mansion's attack, where she wears a plastic mask to hide her disfigurement from a car accident that her father caused.

ColeSmithey.com

Edith Scob gives elegant physical resonance to Christiane's pained existence with gentle dance-like movements that give her an ethereal quality not far removed from that of a zombie.

ColeSmithey.com

Alida Valli brings beauty and gravitas to the film as Dr. Génessier's partner-in-crime, medical assistant, lover, and former patient, whose pretty face he delivered as his greatest medical achievement.

ColeSmithey.com

Noir elements from a criminal investigation, play out against Dr. Génessier's serial killer habit of feeding off local college girls whose faces he steals.

"Eyes Without A Face" is a rare horror film that allows the audience's imagination to run wild, while also giving us an unrelenting sense of suspense. When things get gory, we understand their underlying meaning of abject terror on multiple emotional levels.

ColeSmithey.com

Prepare to be shocked.

God may not believe he's a doctor, but there are doctors who believe the reverse.

Not Rated. 90 mins.

5 Stars

ColeSmithey.com

Cozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

August 20, 2024

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE — SHOCKTOBER!

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comWelcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel. Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

ColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.comColeSmithey.com

ColeSmithey.comArriving in 1973, the same year that "The Exorcist" was released, "The Legend Of Hell House" is a barn-burning horror movie.

Many of the plot and design elements used in this influential genre film went on to be quoted, if not expanded on, by budding young horror directors in love with its artfulness.

The "Hell House" production designers went all out in creating a rich Gothic environment for our four intrepid ghost hunters to converge in the week before Christmas.

ColeSmithey.com

Physicist Dr. Lionel Barrett is hired to investigate ghost behavior at Belasco House, the "Mount Everest of haunted houses."

ColeSmithey.com

The home's millionaire owner was a sadist engaged in all sort of off-the-rails debauchery.

ColeSmithey.com

"Drug addiction, alcoholism, sadism, bestiality, mutilation, murder, vampirism, necrophilia, cannibalism, not to mention a gamut of sexual goodies. Shall I go on?"

The lost soul's of Emeric Belasco's sex-crime victims now want their own sexy-time payback.

ColeSmithey.com

The good doctor brings along his wife Ann (Gayle Hunnicutt), and physical mediums Ben Fischer (Roddy McDowall), and Florence Tanner (Pamela Franklin).

ColeSmithey.com

Erotic dreams turn into hot reality as the week twists with demonic possession, and more effed up stuff than you can laugh your ass off at.

ColeSmithey.com

There's a black cat that does a lot more than just cross paths.

ColeSmithey.com

Dark, twisted, and embellished with dated "modern" touches that make it all worthwhile, "The Legend of Hell House" is a minor masterpiece.

ColeSmithey.com

Roddy McDowall's not-camp-enough performance redeems him if only somewhat, when McDowall goes full Nic Cage for his big finale monologue.

If only Anthony Perkins had played the role. If only.

ColeSmithey.com

"The Legend of Hell House" is a hoot and a half.

ColeSmithey.com

A devious electronic music score by Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson adds to the movie's creepy atmosphere.

Rated R. 90 mins.4 Stars ColeSmithey.com Screen Shot 2024-08-04 at 4.22.31 PMCozy Cole

ColeSmithey.com

Featured Video

SMART NEW MEDIA® Custom Videos

COLE SMITHEY’S MOVIE WEEK

COLE SMITHEY’S CLASSIC CINEMA

Throwback Thursday


Podcast Series