FRIGHT NIGHT (1985)

1985, Tom Holland, 102 mins.

A teenager has to contend with a vampire moving in next door.

Although slightly burdened by period trappings such as the most tasteless nightclub in cinema history and a dire soft-rock soundtrack, Tom Holland’s vampire film is a lot of old-fashioned creepy fun which depends heavily on a superb performance from Chris Sarandon as the vampire who moves in next door to William Ragsdale’s annoying teenage hero. As the bloodsucker begins to cut a swathe through suburbia, the only solution turns out to be calling in movie vampire killer Peter Vincent, played with immense charm by Roddy McDowell. The film works so well because while it’s often very funny, it takes the monster seriously and creates a credible modern vampire myth. Tom Holland, who wrote the brilliantly ingenious Psycho 2, provides witty dialogue and plenty of nods to classic Gothic movies. Richard Edlund's special effects are skilfully achieved and incredibly imaginative throughout.

EVIL DEAD (2013)

2013, Refe Alvarez, 92 mins.

A group of teens have problems with the occult in a remote cabin. 

Now this is just rather sad. Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and Robert Tapert return to the scene of their first triumph and comprehensively screw it up. We’re used to appalling remakes of classic horror films of course but Evil Dead gets everything so comprehensively wrong that it should act as some kind of negative example. It contains endless bloodletting and lots of lengthy set-ups but no scares, no imagination and, most disastrously of all, no sense of humour. There’s an air of almost pious solemnity here which reminds one of the lesser religious epics of the 1950s. Add to this the most annoyingly dim set of characters this side of an Eighties slasher movie and an over-enthusiastic score reminiscent of The Omen and you have a disaster. Only a climactic dismemberment captures the EC comic book style of the original.

DR. NO

1962, Terence Young, 109 mins. 

James Bond investigates nefarious deeds in the Caribbean.

The first Bond movie is a brisk and enjoyable spy thriller with a star-making performance from Sean Connery as our favourite spy and iconic turns from Ursula Andress and Joseph Wiseman as the archetypal Bond Girl and Bond Villain. It’s noticeably more grounded in some kind of reality than later films in the series and it’s lacking several elements which would later become indispensable – notably the theme song and the pre-credits teaser. But it’s already looking like the beginning of a franchise thanks to Ken Adam’s extravagant designs, Ted Moore’s colour cinematography and the insolent wit of the dialogue. It’s really Connery’s show though and he’s irresistibly watchable, whether trading bon mots with Miss Moneypenny, growling seductively at Sylvia Trench or performing unusually believable tradecraft in his Jamaican apartment. Not forgetting the wonderful James Bond theme played by John Barry.  

THE LOVELY BONES

2009, Peter Jackson, 135 mins.

A young girl is murdered and tells her story from the afterlife.

Peter Jackson’s best film since Heavenly Creatures, this is an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel which is distinctive for quite sensational visuals from cinematographer Andrew Lesnie and an astonishing performance from Stanley Tucci as the banal but deviant neighbour who murders the fourteen year old narrator of the film, played with immense confidence by young Saoirse Ronan. Tucci captures a sense of evil which is genuinely disturbing and allows Jackson to be relatively discreet in the portrayal of the murder. In fact, the film underplays both the potential for both horror and sentimentality, and the result is something very unusual and distinctive. A slight misstep is Susan Sarandon’s quirky performance as the lush of a grandmother but this is compensated for by the fine, understated work by  Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as Ronan’s parents trying to cope with grief. 

ROLLERCOASTER

1977, James Goldstone, 117 mins.

American amusement parks are stalked by a maniac.

Connoisseurs of the art of screen acting sometime have to look in the most unusual places – Rollercoaster for example. It’s a ho-hum suspense movie which is never anything other than predictable and is shot in a flat TV movie style which makes it visually indistinguishable from the average cop show of the 1970s. The supporting performances by the likes of Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda are strictly for the money and Timothy Bottoms is peculiarly mannered as the bad guy who likes to blow up fairground rides. But it’s worth it all for George Segal’s quite sensational performance in the lead. It’s not a great part and the dialogue is generally mediocre but he adds grace notes and gives the character so much wit and style that he stands out as a credible, complicated person in the midst of banality. 

TRANCE

2013, Danny Boyle, 101 mins.

An auctioneer becomes involved with an art robbery. 

The problem with Trance is that it twists about so much that it eventually coils its way up its own rectum. It’s a clever enough film which uses hypnosis with a lot more intelligence than you might expect, although it does depend on the idea that the central character, played by James McAvoy whose performance which is unfortunately reminiscent of Ewan McGregor at his most unappealing, is the most suggestible hypnotic subject in the history of the discipline. The plot, in which he gets involved with sexy therapist Rosario Dawson at the behest of gangster Vincent Cassel, hangs together  well until the last half hour when a string of daft revelations pile up and characters behave in ways which are wildly contrary to the way they have been developed. Danny Boyle’s stylish direction just about keeps it watchable. 

VILLAIN

1971, Michael Tuchner, 94 mins. 

A mother-fixated gangster is involved in a disastrous robbery. 

Although ostensibly a gangster movie, Villain is actually most interesting as a state of the nation film which portrays Britain in the early seventies as a country going rapidly down the drain. Nothing works properly, the system is corrupt, sex is degrading and you can’t even pull off a decent payroll robbery because the unions are going out on strike. Richard Burton is pretty good as Vic Dakin, the villain of the title - clearly based on a combination of Reggie Kray and Cagney in White Heat – and Nigel Davenport is splendid as his nemesis, the only honest copper in the Met. The location filming is fantastic, especially a botched heist on a Bracknell factory, and the cast is packed with familiar faces, ranging from  Donald Sinden to James Cossins. Not quite on a par with Get Carter but close.

DRACULA

1958, Terence Fisher, 82 mins.

An evil vampire directs his attentions to a bourgeois family.

Bringing colour and sex to the vampire movie, Terence Fisher’s Dracula is a riveting horror film directed with immense economy and acted with visceral ferocity by the iconic, although surprisingly rarely used by Hammer, team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Jimmy Sangster’s screenplay streamlines Bram Stoker’s novel - for budgetary reasons – but keeps the atmosphere and much of the horror while focusing on the sexual subtext which, according to Christopher Frayling, went largely unnoticed until this screen version. Numerous memorable images – none more so than Lee’s Count appearing in a doorway like a wild animal, fangs dripping with blood – and technical credits which typify the very best of Hammer; Jack Asher’s rich colour photography; James Needs’ pacy editing; Bernard Robinson’s lush production design; and Fisher’s direction which never puts a foot wrong in an incredibly fast-paced eighty two minutes. 

SITTING TARGET

1972, Douglas Hickox, 92 mins.

A convict escapes to get revenge on his unfaithful wife.

Sitting Target is a violent, grim, and compelling thriller which offers a sensational performance from Oliver Reed as an escaped convict obsessed with getting revenge on his cheating wife. Reed was always a powerful actor but here he turns the intensity up to eleven and keeps you compelled even while you’re appalled at his brutality. He’s well supported by Ian McShane as his more cheerful accomplice and there are effective cameo turns from a typically colourful Freddie Jones, Frank Finlay, and Edward Woodward as the copper on the case. The London locations are a delight and there’s one particularly good chase through the sheets and knickers of some tower block washing lines. It’s dated in some respects, particularly a lot of casual misogyny which sees the women uniformally treated like dirt. But it’s constantly riveting with an effective plot twist. 

JEREMIAH JOHNSON

1972, Sydney Pollack, 116 mins.

A mountain man becomes a legendary Indian fighter.

Robert Redford’s iconic presence dominates Sydney Pollack’s Jeremiah Johnson, a mountain-man Western, and adds immeasurably to its success. Johnson is a man of few words and only an actor with Redford’s charisma could carry off this decidedly oblique character.  The narrative, told against the backdrop of epic vistas, proceeds largely through encounters with Indians and various eccentrics, including the great Will Geer as an old-timer. John Milius wrote the screenplay for the film and although it was revised, it still contains numerous Milius touches – notably the nature of myth and the primal need for man to prove himself against nature. The attitude to the Indians is ambiguous and this was apparently deliberate on the part of the filmmakers. Sometimes the film becomes sentimental, particularly in the scenes with the squaw wife, but on the whole it’s compelling, entertaining and memorable.

HITCHCOCK

2012, Sacha Gervasi, 98 mins.

An engaging but fanciful account of a year in the life of the Hitchcocks

Based on Stephen Rebello’s book about the making of Psycho, Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock is most successful as a portrait of a marriage between two creative individuals, one of whom is renowned as a genius while the other is, mostly, content to stay in the background. Alma and Alfred Hitchcock were devoted to each other and the film plays around dangerously with fact in suggesting that there might have been rifts in the relationship, particularly as regards the possibility of Alma nearly having an affair because s she feels neglected. But Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren are delicious with Hopkins, as in Nixon, capturing Hitch’s essence rather than doing a straight impersonation. The stuff about making Psycho is fun, if not always particularly accurate, and the best scenes involve Hitch’s sly ability to dance nimbly round the studio and the censor..