11/5/07

supplement to the previous

I need a break from schoolwork. Here are some of the more, er, frivolous inclusions on my films list. A nice subtitle for this might be 'starkly horrifying children's films of the 70's and 80's'.

'Filled with Disney magic and adventure', alright- plus headless witches, a destroyed, post-apocalyptic Land of Oz, and a pre-punk rock Fairuza Balk. This was the only film ever directed by the great American cinematographer Walter Murch, and boy does it come outta left field. It's based on actual Baum books, and hews exactly to the John R. Neill illustrations from the original imprints, but is DAAARK; kind of like that Anne sequel the CBC made where she goes back and Green Gables is all ghetto with pigshit and dirt kids all around.
The Black Hole- just look at that still. Another misled Disney production in which one can witness Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Perkins brutally murdered; the latter by the spinning blades of the robot Maximillian. Like the 'Dr. Who' music, the opening credit score of this film is also creepy as shit.
Here's the film that created the PG-13 rating. And also coined the phrase 'roller coaster ride'. I can't find a soul who agrees with me on this, but this made an indellible impression on me, not just for the awful, awful situation Indy gets himself, a prissy beauty and a little kid into, but for the roller coaster ride itself, that wicked sequence where they're escaping in the mining cars. I'll take this over the 'family-freindly' sequel with Sean Connery any day.
Not entirely scary, Krull, but some friends recall being taken aback by the scene wherein the noble cylops is crushed to death in a rock door. This film looks like it was made by a couple of D&D geeks with fifteen hundred dollars and a really big backyard. And Liam Neeson is in it.
I am by no means a Transformers 'fan' (though I think the live-action film was the best time I've had in a pop movie in years)-but this thing is a trip. & in the disturbing category, see the slaughter of, like, ten beloved characters in the first five minutes.
Then there's L'avventura, perhaps the originator of the 'pretty girl on a boat' genre. You've got your adult exitential terror going here.