Violence | Cagey Films

New limited editions from Second Sight, part two

Posted on January 29, 2025January 29, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

The arrogance of European invaders isn't enough to protect against the natural fury of the invaded land in Grant Harvey's Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Four new limited edition releases from Second Sight gave me a reason to revisit and to some degree re-evaluate movies I was quite familiar with. While my opinions may not have changed radically, each set did give me a new appreciation for the filmmakers’ work, most particularly in the case of Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez’s influential The Blair Witch Project (1999). The care and attention the company lavish on genre films – here, in addition to Blair Witch, the Ginger Snaps Trilogy (2000-04), Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor (2020) and Ti West’s The Sacrament (2013) – is exemplary.

New limited editions from Second Sight, part one

Posted on January 15, 2025January 14, 2025 by Kenneth George Godwin

Patrick Stewart plays an atypically sinister role as the leader of neo-Nazis in Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room (2015)

Two recent limited editions from Second Sight approach horror from very different angles – classic Hammer Gothic in Terence Fisher’s Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), and contemporary Right-wing violence in Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room (2015).

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part five

Posted on December 18, 2024December 18, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

John Carradine can't believe what he's gotten himself into in Oliver Drake's The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals (1969)

Yet more notes on recent viewing, featuring horror – both high and low end – some documentaries and action movies, gritty realism and slick fantasy … eclectic and somewhat random.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part four

Posted on December 11, 2024December 11, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Stephen Rea chews the scenery as an on-line serial killer in William Malone's fear dot com (2002)

A few more of the movies I’ve been watching this Fall – the feature-length versions of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse homages; David Fincher’s breakthrough thriller Se7en; David Wickes’ two-part TV movie about history’s most famous serial killer Jack the Ripper; Chuck Norris tackling an army of terrorists single-handed in Joseph Zito’s Invasion U.S.A.: John Carpenter’s disappointing remake of Village of the Damned; William Malone’s stylishly confused on-line thriller fear dot come; and Maurice Devereaux’s effective low-budget horror about the Biblical apocalypse End of the Line.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part two

Posted on November 27, 2024November 24, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) faces two serial killers in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

A pair of Jonathan Demme features and several box sets are among my Fall movie watching, featuring various genre titles ranging from the Hollywood prestige of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) to the cheap regional horror of Doug Robertson’s HauntedWeen (1991), early ’70s Brit exploitation including Jack Palance sacrificing women to an African idol in Freddie Francis’ Craze (1974) and four Lucio Fulci and Umberto Lenzi made-for-television ghost stories in Cauldron’s Houses of Doom collection.

Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on November 13, 2024November 11, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Tony Cramonte (Paul Muni) makes his last stand in his fortified apartment in Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932)

Howard Hawks’ Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (1932), newly restored in 4K and released by Criterion in a dual-format edition as well as a stand-alone Blu-ray, is in many ways the most modern of the 1930s gangster movies, filled with Paul Muni’s infectious energy as the ambitious Tony Cramonte, balanced by two string female characters (Karen Morley and Ann Dvorak), blending dark tragedy with streaks of comedy, and pushing violence as far as was possible in the years just before Hollywood established the Production Code.

The 5th Hong Kong International Film Festival, part four

Posted on November 9, 2024November 8, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Passion leads to murder, guilt to ghosts in Nagisa Oshima's Empire of Passion (1978)

Part four of my account of the Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1981 covers a handful of Japanese films.

Fall 2024 viewing round-up, part one

Posted on November 6, 2024November 6, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Every two minutes Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) finds herself back in the same moment in Junta Yamaguchi’s River (2023)

My Fall viewing has been the usual varied mix, with a number of new and classic Japanese movies, John Boorman’s fantasy sequel to The Exorcist, Alex Garland’s uncomfortably prescient depiction of America tearing itself apart, a slice of anti-drug exploitation from the late-’60s, and a surprising discovery from none other than Bert I. Gordon.

The 5th Hong Kong International Film Festival, part three

Posted on November 2, 2024November 2, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Striking allegorical imagery in Jamil Dehlavi's The Blood of Hussain (1980)

The third instalment of my reviews from the Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival covers three films from India and one from Pakistan.

Grindhouse rediscovery: Christina Hornisher’s Hollywood 90028 (1973)

Posted on October 30, 2024November 1, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Working in the darkroom, Mark (Christopher Augustine) seems to be trapped in Hell in Christina Hornisher’s Hollywood 90028 (1973)

Grindhouse Releasing have done a stellar job of resurrecting a little-known low-budget exploitation movie from the early ’70s. Set on the fringes of the film business in Los Angeles, Hollywood 90028 (1973) was the only feature directed by Christina Hornisher who approached the story of a homicidal film cameraman with the cool detachment of a European director and an emphasis on the experience of women being exploited by the industry.

Tag: Violence