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Blood and Black Lace 1964 ★★★★★
Great early giallo with everything you want from a horror movie:
A cool looking killer.
Epic and brutal kills that hold up even over fifty years after its release date.
An awesome reveal at the end I forgot about since my last viewing.
Gorgeous women, stylish men, cool looking cops,...
A groovy score.
And of course, stylish sets and colouring.
Five stars well deserved.
Night of the Living Dead 1968 ★★★★★
Thanks to the local art house theater for organising a screening of this classic.
In a cinema, you feel the dread more than in a living room. The paranoia between the people and how they turn on each other. Timely, with the covid memories still fresh. Ben as the voice of reason and Cooper as the selfish guy who does not help.
Not to mention the kills. I love how Savini realised a step up from the less gory kills from earlier horror (fifties and before). Of course, he was not the first one with brutal kills (Mario Bava, for one, paved the way), but it was certainly one of the first Hollywood classics that went this far with the gore. No coincidence that it was made off the radar of the big studios.
There is also the political dimension. This screening came with an introductory speech by a university professor on film history. She told us amongst others about the political climate in which Romero grew up – the age of the atom bomb – and about how this movie in a way reflected the era. Having that knowledge in the back of your mind, it's easy to think of the barricading of the house on more than one level. Is it to keep out the zombies or to protect you from the bomb? Or the interviews with the scientists and politicians contradicting each other. Again, timely.
Did I mention five star classic?
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