David Cronenberg continues his exploration of disease, metamorphosis, and mutation in this ingenious low budget horror film that reimagines disease as an evolutionary hiccup.
Tag: 1977
‘Eraserhead’ – Everything is fine on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
David Lynch’s debut feature is grim, disturbed, mutated, claustrophobic, and unlike anything that had been made before it. It’s his original nightmare world.
The original ‘The Muppet Show’ on Disney+
The Muppet Show: Complete Series (1977-1981) is the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational variety show to ever hit prime time. More than forty years later, it’s still funny, fast-paced, utterly madcap, and tremendous fun. Jim Henson was already a household name for bringing his Muppets to Sesame Street but his ambitions took him in all […]
‘Pumping Iron’ – Arnold Schwarzenegger begins on Amazon Prime
Anyone who believes that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rise to Hollywood superstar was a fluke needs to see Pumping Iron (1977), George Butler’s documentary on bodybuilding culture of the 1970s which did more to popularize the sport in the culture at large than anything before or since. The film follows a handful of bodybuilders preparing for the […]
‘House’/’Hausu’ – Japanese madness on HBO Max and Criterion Channel
This unclassifiable Japanese haunted house/high school romp/demon killer/surreal fantasy film is like nothing you’ve seen before, a candy-colored style bomb of horror movie more jaw-droppingly unreal than scary.
Dario Argento’s ‘Suspiria’ free on Kanopy
Dario Argento, the master choreographer of the distinctly Italian art of horror known as giallo, was the pop-art fabulist of the slasher movie set. He was popular in Europe but a cult figure among horror fans in the U.S. Suspiria (Italy, 1977), a stylish, surreal, downright puzzling piece of seventies Grand Guignol weirdness, was his […]
‘The American Friend’ on Criterion Channel
The American Friend (Germany, 1977) – “What’s wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?” Dennis Hopper’s Tom Ripley is nothing like the character that Patricia Highsmith created and explored in five novels, and while Wim Wender’s adaptation of Ripley’s Game, the sequel to The Talented Mr. Ripley, remains more or less faithful to the plot (with […]
Ridley Scott’s ‘The Duellists’ on Amazon Prime Video
“The duelist demands satisfaction. Honor for him is an appetite.” The Duellists (1977), the feature debut of Ridley Scott, begins in 1800, “the year Napoleon became ruler of France,” with an early morning duel in a dewy green meadow where French military officer Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel) runs his opponent through and then busies himself […]
Profundo Argento: ‘Suspira,’ ‘Cat O’ Nine Tails,’ ‘Deep Red,’ ‘Opera,’ and ‘The Church’ in new Blu-ray editions
Suspiria (Synapse, Blu-ray) The Cat O’ Nine Tails (Arrow, Blu-ray+DVD Combo) Deep Red (Arrow, Blu-ray) Opera (Scorpion, Blu-ray) The Church (Scorpion, Blu-ray) Dario Argento was the master choreographer of the distinctly Italian art of horror known as giallo, was a baroque, often sadistic kind of slasher movie that favors intricately-designed murder sequences and aesthetic beauty […]
Sonny Chiba is ‘Doberman Cop’ on Amazon Prime
Martial arts movie icon Sonny Chiba plays the tough Okinawa cop who arrives in the neon lights of Tokyo in a straw hat and a pig in his arms in Doberman Cop (Japan, 1977), the crime thriller based on the popular manga and styled on violent American crime movies of the seventies. He looks like […]