The Ninth Configuration (1980)

A castle surrounded by a forrest that is swamped by a slowly creeping fog. A dream of an astronaut on the moon looking away from the American flag to see Jesus on the cross. Stacy Keach’s face, serious and seething, eyes bulging red with rage. A few of the key images from William Peter Blatty’s […]

The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)

Being a fan of director Werner Herzog, I’ve always been meaning to watch The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974; Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle; Every Man for Himself and God Against All) as one of his acclaimed works from the 1970s New Wave of German Cinema. I always assumed it would be arduous […]

Castle Keep (1969)

While the posters might make Castle Keep (1969) look like a World War II action movie, it’s actually a very strange, oddball experience. Right from the opening sequence where a jeep of tired soldiers travelling through a forest is cross-cut in the editing with two stately people – a Count (Jean-Pierre Aumont) and a Countess […]

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Watching a few Burt Lancaster movies recently and I was contemplating him as an actor, how he fills up a frame with his tall, athletic physique and his garrulous, charismatic, confidence. Lancaster won the Oscar for Best Actor for playing the title role of Elmer Gantry (1960), based on the Sinclair Lewis novel, and it […]

Society (1989)

I remember first reading about Society (1989) in a list of the worst sex scenes in an Empire magazine, and has grown in notoriety to the point of a satirical horror cult classic. Directed by Brian Yunza, the producer of Re-Animator who used the success of that film to broker a two picture deal where […]