A few things I liked about this movie: It stayed fairly close to the story.
The terror element in the scenes between Connie (Dern) and Arnold Friend (Williams) were present, as were in the short story by Joyce Carol Oates.
Laura Dern's performance was excellent, as a young girl experimenting with flirtations as she becomes aware of her budding sexuality. But something happens one day...
Somehow, inadvertently, she attracted the attention of "Arnold Friend". (If you remove the R's from his name you find his true nature).
SHe's afraid to come out of her house...she's afraid to stay inside, because he'd come in and get her. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, the same way it did when I first saw Carole Kane pick up the phone to hear "Are you in the house alone?"
I also like the way a lot of the Symbolism of JCO's original story remains intact.
What I don't like:
Treat Williams should not have been cast as Arnold Ariend. It should have been played by somebody far less attractive, and far more creepy.
They changed the ending. fine enough, as it would be hard to recapture the ending as written by Oates. However, the new ending made no sense.
4 out of 5 stars ;-)
The terror element in the scenes between Connie (Dern) and Arnold Friend (Williams) were present, as were in the short story by Joyce Carol Oates.
Laura Dern's performance was excellent, as a young girl experimenting with flirtations as she becomes aware of her budding sexuality. But something happens one day...
Somehow, inadvertently, she attracted the attention of "Arnold Friend". (If you remove the R's from his name you find his true nature).
SHe's afraid to come out of her house...she's afraid to stay inside, because he'd come in and get her. It makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, the same way it did when I first saw Carole Kane pick up the phone to hear "Are you in the house alone?"
I also like the way a lot of the Symbolism of JCO's original story remains intact.
What I don't like:
Treat Williams should not have been cast as Arnold Ariend. It should have been played by somebody far less attractive, and far more creepy.
They changed the ending. fine enough, as it would be hard to recapture the ending as written by Oates. However, the new ending made no sense.
4 out of 5 stars ;-)