Thrillers | Cagey Films

The films of Eloy de la Iglesia

Posted on October 6, 2021October 5, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

El Jaro (Jose Luis Manzano) turns to petty crime and drugs in Eloy de la Iglesia's Navajeros (1980)

Severin introduces the work of Eloy de la Iglesia, a little-known Basque filmmaker with three releases spanning the period from the end of the Franco regime to the transition to democracy in Spain. Two thrillers with a satirical edge made in the early ’70s give way to a trilogy of violent, neo-realist depictions of youth crime and drug addiction in the early ’80s. Dynamic and visceral, these films are deeply empathetic to members of the underclass – workers and dispossessed adolescents – and unflinching in their treatment of addiction and homosexuality in a repressive society.

Summer viewing: all the rest

Posted on September 15, 2021November 17, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

10-year-old Brian Bonsall is a cold-blooded "bad seed" in Dennis Dimster-Denk's Mikey (1992)

In addition to all the movies I’ve reviewed here in the past three or four months, I’ve watched many more; here I acknowledge more than seven dozen movies and television series I’ve seen over the summer.

Vinegar Syndrome summer binge, part two

Posted on August 4, 2021August 1, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

There's a lot of neck to bite in Javier Aguirre's Count Dracula's Great Love (1973)

I continue my Vinegar Syndrome binge with an even more varied collection of movies across many genres, with monsters and Nazis, ghosts and a traditional vampire, cannibalism among shipwreck survivors, and a female vigilante facing down a vicious gang.

Columbia Noir #3 from Indicator

Posted on July 7, 2021August 8, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Vince Ryker (Vince Edwards) escapes prison thinking he's going to be rich in Irving Lerner's City of Fear (1959)

With their third box set of Columbia Studios films noirs in just over half a year, Indicator again gather together six entertaining B-movies made in the shadow of Cold War paranoia; crime, violence and personal demons evoke a world destabilized by fear, betrayal and uncertainty. As before, the set is packed with commentaries featurettes and short films which illuminate the context from which the features emerged.

Euro Pulp

Posted on May 19, 2021May 16, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Delphine Seyrig conveys elegant ennui as the Countess Elizabeth Bathory in Harry Kümel's Daughters of Darkness (1971)

A selection of European genre movies from the 1970s and ’80s ranges from sadistic killers to cannibals to elegant vampires, from bad fashions and electro-pop music to old families sinking into decadence, from masters of exploitation like Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato to the artful Harry Kümel.

Recent Arrow viewing, Part Two

Posted on May 5, 2021November 11, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

Captain Seafield (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews) and sonar expert Nedge Pepsi (Beulah Peters) are shocked by the Lake Michigan Monster (2018)

Yet another wide range of titles from Arrow Video from a restored silent classic to aliens over Tokyo, woods infested with zombies, food which consumes those who eat it, apocalypse in an alternate future Los Angeles, friendship destroyed by political conflicts, rich people facing the loss of their wealth and a naively admiring time capsule of the U.S. on the brink of the ’60s.

Indicator’s Columbia Noir #2

Posted on April 7, 2021April 2, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Unemployed engineer Mike Lambert (Glenn Ford) loses his brakes driving down a mountain in Richard Wallace's Framed (1947)

Indicator’s Columbia Noir #2 box set presents another six movies, hovering between A and B pictures, from the late ’40s to late ’50s. Crime, romance and a society shaken in the aftermath of the Second World War provide a background for portraits of characters torn by guilt, paranoia, betrayal and moral uncertainty.

Alan Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) undergoes a final psychological test in Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View (1974)

The quintessential ’70s paranoid thriller, Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974), gets a stunning restoration on Criterion’s new Blu-ray.

Holiday viewing

Posted on January 27, 2021December 26, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Tasya Voss (Andrea Riseborough)'s identity begins to disintegrate in Brandon Cronenberg's Possessor (2020)

Yet another mixed bag of viewing from classic westerns to Asian fantasy/horror, black comedies and science fiction, musicals and monsters.

Recent Indicator viewing

Posted on January 20, 2021January 19, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Juliet Bristow (Gayle Hunnicutt) discovers a body in Pompeii in Richard C. Sarafian's Fragment of Fear (1970)

Indicator continue to release exemplary editions of a wide range of movies, from obscure genre titles to classics to exploitation and occasional failed experiments. Recent viewing ranges from Max Ophuls’ exquisite domestic noir The Reckless Moment (1949) to Blake Edwards’ taut thriller Experiment in Terror (1962) and Arthur Lubin’s surprisingly good Gothic romance Footsteps in the Fog (1955).

Tag: Thrillers