Ladies and gentlemen, we got 'em. Took long enough for 2025 to deliver a couple of films worthy of praise from me: Co-directors Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza's Warfare managed to be an uncompromising and highly exhilarating dose of military combat; one that I won't forget anytime soon. Emilie Blickfeldt's beautiful, dark twisted fairy tale The Ugly Stepsister turned out to be a real surprise, as its promotional trailer was shamelessly cashing-in on the success of The Substance (2024). Turned out to have its own sense of identity and stood out on its own. Such a shame both of these films were only fleetingly available in some cinemas.
Elsewhere, the rest of this month's highlights were revisiting some personal classics. Wanted to review them, however, free time and a fried brain proved otherwise.
Film:
Screaming Mimi (Gerd Oswald, 1958)*
Blood and Roses (Roger Vadim, 1960)*
Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (Gordon Flemyng, 1965)
The Shuttered Room (David Greene, 1967)*
Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968)
The Tell-Tale Heart (Ernest Morris, 1960)*
And Soon the Darkness (Robert Fuest, 1970)
Tenebrae (Dario Argento, 1982)
Mute Witness (Anthony Waller, 1995)*
Antiporno (Sion Sono, 2016)*
Freaky Tales (Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, 2024/2025)*
The Ugly Stepsister (Emilie Blichfeldt, 2025)*
Warfare (Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza, 2025)*
Television:
Doctor Who - ‘The Curse of Peladon’ (Lennie Mayne, 1972)
Doctor Who - 'Arc of Infinity' (Ron Jones, 1983)
Torchwood - Season 1, Episodes 1-3 (Brian Kelly, Colin Teague, 2006)*
Doctor Who - Season 2, Episodes 4-8 (Various, 2025)*
Crystal Palace vs. Manchester City - F.A. Cup Final (2025)
Mastermind - Episodes 30 & 31 (Bill Wright 2024/2025)*
*First time viewings.
Dada Debaser Notes:
- Managed to post my epic The Wicker Man (1973) review on the most relevant day of the year.
- Finally managed to watch Blood and Roses and I enjoyed it despite its slow pacing. Quite controversial for its time I suppose, given its sapphic content. Praying for a high definition release, as it's a gorgeous film that deserves some love.
- Screaming Mimi is credited as an early forerunner to the Giallo genre by film historians. Too bad a more competent director like Otto Preminger didn't direct it, however, as it's lifelessly dull. Anita Ekberg's sex appeal is the obvious highlight, while an awful cover of Put the Blame on Mame sung by Gypsy Rose Lee is the obvious low. Ekberg's guard dog might have been the most professional performer in the film, in my opinion. Favourite line: "A great dame with a Great Dane".
- Loved the incredible first act of Hitchcockian thriller Mute Witness, but it fell apart afterwards, becoming both generic and predictable. Fay Ripley speaks with a terrible American accent in her supporting role.
- Speaking of fake American accents, The Shuttered Room is the second film I've seen over the last couple of months where Oliver Reed plays the gang leader of a bunch of feckless youths. Carol Lynley's performance and the aforementioned Reed are the only positive things about this proto-Straw Dogs horror thriller.
- Haven't enjoyed anything post Hate trilogy from cancelled Japanese auteur Sion Sono. Antiporno might be the closest I suppose, but I doubt I'll ever watch it again.
- Punks vs. neo-Nazis. Too $hort vs. Danger Zone. Pedro Pascal vs. my tolerance of him. How do you mess up Freaky Tales; an anthology set in 1987 Oakland, referencing The Lost Boys, Repo Man and Creepshow 2? By two hipsters badly copying Quentin Tarantino's work and style. Tom Hanks's cameo as a film buff, video store clerk was pure eye-rolling cringe. Naturally, Letterboxd brainlets lapped it up. Could not wait for this to end.
- The Beeb missed a golden opportunity not calling that one recent episode of Doctor Who 'The Two Ranis'.
In Other Media:
At least some fears over A.I. were quelled by Neural Viz's creatively unique web-series set in the Monoverse. Tolkien levels of lore effectively told through a series of comedy shorts. Binged the entire channel.
8 comments:
The 2 Ranis gag in the Doctor Who finale was one of the few good things about that convoluted mess.
Feeling sorry for the poor saps who went and saw it at the cinema.
Ain't gonna lie tho, I applaud the high level troll move of Billie Piper being the new Doctor.
After all that cosmetic surgery, I didn't instantly recognise her. There was a rumour going around of Gatwa regenerating as Piper and Whittaker making a return, but I assumed they were just nonsense. Obviously, I was wrong.
My main take away from that rancid episode was Eccleston was dead right about RTD, and you can commit benefit fraud with a sonic screwdriver.
The reboot Doctor don.
“If you’re an alien why do you sound like you’re from the north?”
“Lots of planets have a north.”
That and "never eat pears!" might be the best gags from Nu Who.
Maybe Gerd Oswald was just getting his bearings when he directed SCREAMING MIMI. I rather liked it, but Anita Ekberg can make just about anything look good! I haven't seen it in quite some time but have been thinking about a rewatch. Oswald really hit his stride when he directed many of the best episodes of the classic sci-fi TV series THE OUTER LIMITS (1963-65).
TENEBRAE is one of Argento's greatest. Got a chance to see it screened in a movie theater several years ago. Despite it being the edited version called UNSANE, the large audience really seemed to enjoy it.
That's great to hear about Oswald's episodes on The Outer Limits as I'm keen to indulge in the series based on its connection with Incubus (1966).
Ironically, I only found about Screaming Mimi (1958) via a feature length documentary which was a bonus feature on my disc of Tenebrae (1982).
Tenebrae is Argento's best film after Suspiria (1977), in my humble opinion, and possibly tied with Bava's Blood and Black Lace (1964) in terms of the best giallo. I've never watched the Unsane version of the film, but I'd settle for whatever version of it, if it's being screened on the big screen.
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