Based on a supposedly true story, 1979’s The Amityville Horror pits newlyweds George and Kathleen Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder, respectively) against a Long Island lakeside home that’s one mean sonofabitch. No sooner have they moved in with their towheaded tots when strange things start to happen: voices at night, a roomful of flies, […]
watch
Posted inArts & Culture
House of Wax
I also recall loving the movie, which continues to this day, especially its famous scene of the paddle ball seemingly bursting through the screen and toward our faces. It’s a superb effect lost on previous home-video releases; absent of another theatrical re-release, Warner Bros.’ new Blu-ray of House of Wax is as close as you’re […]
Posted inArts & Culture
In the House
High school literature teacher Germain (Fabrice Luchini, Ozon’s Potiche) is fed up with the student body at large, but impressed with the quality of writing by 16-year-old Claude (Ernst Umhauer, The Monk). For an early assignment, the student turns in a rather voyeuristic, true story about visiting the home of his awkward classmate, Rapha (newcomer […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Kings of Summer
Socially awkward and undersized classmate Biaggio (Moises Arias, TV’s Hannah Montana) comes along just for something to do, but the machete he brings along sure does come in handy. Although he indulges in shots of super-slow-motion too often, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts (TV’s Funny or Die Presents …) ably recaptures that feeling of when summer […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Wish You Were Here
Jeremy’s girlfriend, Steph (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies), is the younger sister of Alice (Felicity Price), who also went on the trip with her husband, Dave (Joel Edgerton, Zero Dark Thirty). One of those three knows more than he/she lets on; furthermore, two of the three hold an additional secret from the other. Price co-wrote the […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Magic Magic
While you’re at it, give Magic Magic credit for being something different, even if it ultimately proves a disappointment. Written and directed by one Sebastián Silva, the Chilean-set chiller sends Alicia (Juno Temple, Killer Joe) on her first trip outside the United States. She joins cousin Sarah (Emily Browning, Sucker Punch) and a few of […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Brontë Sisters
The film stars Franco-actress standouts Isabelle Adjani (Possession) and Isabelle Huppert (Amour) before they were household names in international cinema. Adjani is Emily, the most recognized of the Brontë sisters; Huppert is Ann, the youngest; and the moral realist in the family and the oldest and least-known, Charlotte, is played by the late Marie-France Pisier […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Street Trash
Debuting on Blu-ray in Synapse Films’ “Special Meltdown Edition,” the 1987 skid-row epic centers on an auto junkyard populated by homeless winos. One of them, who looks like famed Torgo from Manos: The Hands of Fate, finds that a decades-old bottle of Tenafly Viper purchased at the local liquor store causes those who drink it […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hatchet III
Mind you, this is played as a punch line in itself. If you can see the absurdity within the annihilation, Hatchet III is recommended for you. And if not … well, hell, you already knew that. Written — but not directed this time — by series creator Adam Green (TV’s Holliston), the third flick depicting […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Errors of the Human Body
Fresh from relishing villainy in The Call, the near-unrecognizable Michael Eklund cleans up nice as Dr. Geoffrey Burton, a reluctant geneticist specializing in embryonic abnormalities for very personal reasons. He leaves the University of Massachusetts behind to continue his controversial research in Dresden, Germany — a far less-politicized environment. But Eron Sheean’s film is not […]