Kirk Douglas and Amy Irving star in De Palma’s first film after his success with Carrie, and this one is another supernatural tinged thriller, but this one boasts a score by John Williams, and viewers should watch for brief appearances by Daryl Hannah and Dennis Franz. John Farris pens the screenplay from his own novel,…
Tag: novel
TIFF 2021: The Mad Women’s Ball dir. Melanie Laurent
Poignant and emotionally satisfying, Laurent’s film, The Mad Women’s Ball is a lush period piece that resonates with impactful themes and understated performances. Based on the novel of the same name by Victoria Mas, the film’s narrative follows Eugenie (Lou de Laage), a woman who suffers from visions that may be spiritual visitations. Very much…
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2021) – Quentin Tarantino
Man am I divided on this one. I love that Tarantino has given us his first novel, and allows it to expand on his film of the same name. It has a pulpy style to it that fits perfectly with the era, and the aesthetic of the film story he told. It also lists movie…
Nightbreed: Director’s Cut (1990) – Clive Barker
I’ve always enjoyed Clive Barker’s stories, and I remember being so excited, during my freshman year at university, I was reading anything I could get my hands on by him from my local library. So I was very excited to see that he had directed his own adaptation of his novel Cabal in the form…
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) – Niels Arden Oplev
Back in 2009 it seemed everyone was reading and talking about the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. I read each one voraciously, absorbing each and every detail and loving the dark, thrilling world he created, and the fantastic character of Lisbeth Salander, a brave and powerful heroine with a sense of justice and her own…
The Dead Zone (1983) – David Cronenberg
Christopher Walken stars as Johnny Smith, a school teacher who ends up in an accident that gives him second sight, allowing him glimpses into the past, present and future in the Jeffrey Boam scripted adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel. Directed by famed director David Cronenberg, the film is packed with recognisable names in front…
The Exorcist III (1990) – William Peter Blatty
It’s been a long time since I watched William Peter Blatty’s direct his adaptation of his own novel, Legion. After a reshot ending to include an exorcism that didn’t exist in the original novel or screenplay, we are left with an uneven film that does a poor job to illustrate Blatty’s nature as a storyteller….
Congo (1995) – Frank Marshall
A script based on a Micheal Crichton novel, creature effects by Stan Winston, directed by Frank Marshall who has a long association with Spielberg and Amblin, an all-star cast including Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Bruce Campbell, Dylan Walsh and Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje. Seems like a sure-fire win right? I hadn’t watched this one since…
Go Tell It On The Mountain (1953) – James Baldwin
This week sees me reading something a little different from my usual escapist fare. Recently LeVar Burton began a reading club on Fable, and while I can’t access it in Canada, they did list the first three books he was recommending, and Go Tell It on the Mountain was at the top of his list….
In the Mouth of Madness (1994) – John Carpenter
I got to rewatch on of my favourite John Carpenter films for the blog this week, In the Mouth of Madness, which brings Lovecraftian horror to the screen in a way that hadn’t been done before, and honestly helped introduce me to his writing, which albeit is racist, but also incredibly unnerving and frightening, happily…
The Keep (1983) – Micheal Mann
(Re) Watching Micheal Mann’s disjointed supernatural film, The Keep I realised I wanted one thing from it – Mann’s original cut. Apparently clocking in at 3 1/2 hours it was trimmed down to 2 by Paramount Pictures, who then cut another half hour out of it after some rough previews. It’s not like now. If…
M*A*S*H (1973) – The Ringbanger, Sometimes You Hear the Bullet, and Dear Dad, Again
Leslie Nielsen guest stars as Colonel Buzz Brighton in The Ringbanger, which was written by Jerry Mayer, and first aired on 21 January, 1973. Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Trapper (Wayne Rogers) click with one of their patients, Brighton, but are soon troubled to learn that his unit suffers the highest casualty rate, with the least…
