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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Over the past week or so, I’ve been getting into giallo, a genre I had never seen anything of before. But I enjoy slashers and classic horror in general, so I was intrigued. Btw, I watched all of these with Italian dubs and English subs.
Blood and Black Lace (1964) – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐:
This is the film I started with, and I’m super glad I did, because it’s my favourite so far. A prototypical giallo film, it has all the main features: a black-gloved killer (and what an iconic-looking one at that), gruesome deaths, and luscious colours I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen before – the use of contrast and lighting in this movie is unmatched. I watched the 4K Arrow remaster, which probably added to the experience. Also, I quickly realised that plot and characters are secondary to other conventions in this genre.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) – ★★☆☆☆:
I will probably be hated for rating this one so low, but it didn’t impress me as much. I did appreciate the art gallery scene in the beginning; it opened a lot of possibilities for where the story might go. But it went in another direction I hadn’t anticipated and dragged on for a while. It wasn’t bad overall; maybe I just went in expecting something else and people see things in this film I didn’t. I did like the resolution though.
The New York Ripper (1982) – ★★★★☆:
After the slower pace of the previous film, I was ready for more vibrant visuals and brutal killings, and this one did not disappoint. Very graphic at times, but I liked it. The Donald Duck voice made it kinda weird but it was charming in its own way, I guess. What I didn’t care for at all was the nudity, which was everywhere throughout the entire film. Hard to look past, but the cinematography made up for it.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) – ★★★★☆:
By this point, I was curious about the genre’s beginnings, so I went all the way back to the very first entry: another Mario Bava piece. After Blood and Black Lace, I was sure to find this black-and-white picture just as riveting. And I was right! A bit of a deviation from what was to follow in the genre, but a gripping story with a likable protagonist nonetheless.
All in all, I’m now very interested in exploring more gialli! I seem to like Bava’s movies in particular, so I’m probably going to watch (and hopefully review) more of his work next. But if anyone has any other recommendations, please tell me!!
Another Bava I'd recommend, although not a giallo, is Lisa and the Devil. A very strange movie, and featuring a great performance from Telly Savelas! My favorite Argento would probably have to be Tenebrae. Another Italian horror that is definitely not a giallo but kind of fits in that same strange environment is Cemetery Man, which I can't really adequately describe.
I know you said you saw these with the Italian dubs, in general I always recommend seeing giallo movies in English, since it's always dubbed anyway but usually the lead actors are American or English so the dubbing tends to line up a bit better for them at least since everyone is speaking in their native language on set.
English or Italian dub is an interesting thing to play around with, as it can be very hit and miss which dub is the best, but also give the film a new light. I used to only watch spaghetti westerns in English, because it made sense setting wise for the old west, but recently I have quite enjoyed revisiting some of them in Italian dubs. Some are just way better, as the Italian actors seems to be more in tune with the style than some of the "phoning it in" English actors. Especially Sergio Corbucci's film have much greater Italian dubs (Django and The Great Silence for example). For giallo or poliziotteschi I tend to go for the Italian first, but it is of course very actor dependent what works best.
Thanks for the recs, I’ll check them out! I’ve heard good things about Tenebrae in particular, so very excited!
Yeah, the dubbing situation was a bit confusing. I might have to switch between them a little to see what I like more.
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is not top tier Argento, but still solid in my opinion. If you haven't already, for peak Argento giallo, then Deep Red is a must see.
If you want a more bloody slasher vibe giallo, then I can recommend Torso from 1973. That is pretty bonkers.
For something that is bit of a mix between giallo and poliziotteschi then I can highly recommend The Suspicious Death of a Minor from 1975. Very cynical police procedure.
What Have They Done to Your Daughters? from 1974 takes the route of child murders leading to political scandal with underground pedophile networks.
For very disturbing rape and revenge film then Late Night Trains from 1975 really surprised me, as it seems like what Michael Haneke would do if he was an Italian genre director.
Italian genre films have so much to offer. It is fun to explore the wider depths of spaghetti westerns, poliziotteschi and giallo as they all share not both actors and directors, but also themes and whole narrative structures.
Woah, thanks! Deep Red and Torso are on my watch list, but always nice to see more obscure stuff!
Tonight is King of New York (1990) --- to say this film is unhinged is an understatement. Its almost operatic...
Kind of feels like the characters are wasted on the script at times.
Resident Evil
I don't know anything about this franchise, but I've been rolling my eyes at all the fans complaining about this for months now. Cregger himself even said he was surprised at how nitpicky they all were about every little thing that he changed.
I liked this a lot. It's a much lighter tone than Weapons or Barbarian and has more comedy than either of those two. Austin Abrams is a funny protagonist and has a lot of quips, sort of in the meta Joss Whedon sense but a good copy of it. Weapons is grand and operatic, and does really interesting things with it's storytelling and it's rich in themes. This is the opposite, it's simple and straight forward. It all takes place in real time and Abrams is the only character on screen for 90% of the runtime.
It looks great, it sounds great, the score is awesome. It's thrilling, there's jump scares there that got me especially in the beginning.
Cregger has now worked with three different cinematographers, and I think if he chooses one to work with for his next film it should be this guy, Wolski, who also shot the Pirates of the Caribbean films and News of the World. Cregger is a highly visual director, he does really cool stuff with the camera here. When it switches to IMAX it upgrades the visuals that he was working with. He's also not shy about showing fucked up things on screen, as we already saw in his previous films.
It's the best video game film. Not that that's a high bar. It's basically just this and Tron: Legacy with Detective Pikachu at a distant third. Although Street Fighter looks good and that's coming out in a few weeks.
I finally got out to see Spider Man: Brand New Day (2026). It was all well and good, but I don't particularly see why it is rated consistently a bit higher than Homecoming, Far From Home, and No Way Home. It has also had more box office success than its predecessors, but it felt about the same as the other movies in the series to me. I don't have any strong feelings about the film, but there is one joke (with a spoiler) that I have the urge to make:
**Spoiler Warning!**
Jesse FadenJean Gray will return in Control: ResonantSecond great theater experience this year came from The Invite and like Camp Miasma it also deals with the detriments of sexual repression, from a somewhat different register. Obviously a stage play adaption in the vein of Carnage, with two couples having an honest shouting match in a fancy apartment. Very much a film that hinges on the actors, and they deliver, though I wished Seth Rogan could go a bit beyond his usual loud sarcastic persona. It is like he plays the same dude in every movie and show. Olivia Wilde was the highlight though. She kills it with her body language and facial expression, showing years of resentment and sexual repression finally being resurfaced when their upstairs neighbors bring some radical honesty to the table. Really nice to see what I would call a proper "adult" film. Packed theater with 40+ crowd, everyone laughing. I saw it with my mom, which despite being basically a sex comedy wasn't as awkward as it might have been.