William Sadler goes toe-to-toe with Edward Woodward’s Robert McCall in Shades of Darkness. Written by Jack V. Fogarty this episode was first aired on 5 November, 1986. Sadler plays Rick Dillon, a murderer, rapist, sociopath and ex-soldier who has murdered a woman but Dan Turner (Lenny von Dohlen) is arrested for it when he’s found…
Tag: trauma
Smile (2022) – Parker Finn
Paramount Pictures’ latest theatrical release is an unnerving look parable for what happens with trauma when we just simply grin and bear it, instead of speaking of it openly, freely and dealing with it when it happens. Doctor Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) works as a psychologist in the emergency department of a major hospital. She’s…
Don’t Breathe (2016) – Fede Alvarez
I was pleasantly surprised by Don’t Breathe, though I didn’t like a single character in the film. They’re all evil in their way, and that made it hard to empathize. In fact, for the first part of the film, I sympathize with the Blind Man (Stephen Lang), until that twist of course. But it’s interesting…
Scream 3 (2000) – Wes Craven
Wes Craven delivered a third entry into the Scream franchise in 2000, and while it’s interesting to see how characters have changed (or not) since the second film, the film itself lacks the self-referential meta nature that made the first to so enjoyable. Even by transposing the bulk of the story to the making of…
The Mary Shelley Club (2021) – Goldy Moldavsky
So I have been reading a lot of science fiction of late, and wanted to shake it up a bit, and find something a little bit more from the horror/thriller genre, and a top horror novels of 2021 list returned the Young Adult (I hate that term) novel, The Mary Shelley Club. Well I put…
Even Dwarfs Started Small (1971) – Werner Herzog
I dug into another title from the Movies That Cause Trauma chapter of the Ten Bad Dates with De Niro book, and I have to say, having watched this offering from Herzog, I may not be traumatised, but I am definitely unnerved and put off by some of his work to be sure. Shot in…
Bambi (1942) – David Hand, James Alger, Samuel Armstrong, Graham Heid, Bill Roberts, Paul Satterfield, Norman Wright, Arthur Davis, and Clyde Geronimi
I return to the Ten Bad Dates with De Niro book, plunging back into the chapter on movies that cause trauma, and find myself face to face with Bambi. The classic Disney films has no doubt scarred viewers since its debut in ’42. People were used to cartoons being fun, delightful, occasionally frightening, as moments…
The Red House (1947) – Delmer Daves
I dug into another of the trauma inducing titles from the Ten Bad Dates With De Niro movie book, and this one is pretty dark, filled with intimations that can be drawn out as you observe the action, and the undertones at work in this film. Edward G. Robinson headlines this back country melodrama that…
Star Trek: The Next Generation (1992) – Hero Worship, and Violations
Captain’s log: stardate 45397.3 Airing on 27 January, 1992, this Data (Brent Spiner) episode is a little dull. And once again, it feels like the series could have done something really good if they hadn’t played it safe. Written by Joe Menosky from a story by Hilary Bader, the episode sees the Enterprise responding to…
Fatal Attraction (1987) – Adrian Lyne
The final film in the recommendations from my screening of Les Enfants du Paradis for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, is this dramatic thriller from the late 80s, that saw Michael Douglas mucking up his marriage to Anne Archer, and Glenn Close boiling a pet bunny. Douglas plays Dan Gallagher,…
The Mind Reels 