So, I'll admit right off the bat that I'm probably coming into this movie with a skewed opinion. You see I'm an absolute horror addict and I'm well on my way towards my trek of seeing every horror film ever made (one day, my friends). This film was recommended to me in the excellent book HIDDEN HORROR, so I figured I would give it a shot, knowing that this is not one of my favorite genres.
I accept and realize off the bat that this is not straight horror in any way. I was certainly not expecting blood and gore or scary monsters. As a noirish 40s thriller, though, it certainly falls in the extended horror family tree. That's problem number one for me, right there. I'm just not the biggest fan of this subgenre. Censorship and sinking standards had slowly killed the golden age of horror that had come a decade before. It would be another decade before drive-in monsters invaded the genre. The 40s is, probably the low point for horror. You had Universal continuing to pump out the monster sequels, but there was little new material being produced. What was coming out was often this type of film - slow burn thrillers that relied a lot more on shadow and mood than action. The master was Val Lewton, of course, who is another film maker whose films I don't enjoy as much as the larger community.
So, what's with the history lesson? I say all of that to point out that I generally don't like this kind of film to begin with, so I will admit I'm not the best judge, but I know that there will be plenty of people who share my opinion, as well, so it's worth putting out there.
This is a gorgeous movie at times. Plenty of shadows and spooky basements and the whole film takes place during a thunderstorm, creating a good sense of mood. That's all there really is, though. NOTHING happens in this movie for an hour. We get a little bit of setup at the beginning and a "thrilling" finale, but the hour in between is talking and more talking, though not from our main character who can't talk at all and spends a lot of time making awkward faces.
I do see some early traces of things to come that probably make this an important film. There are subtle foreshadows of the serial killer genre, with the killer stalking victims from closets and a definite sense of the "final girl" that would come in later movies. We even get a black-gloved killer to predate the work of Bava and the giallo movement. Those curiosities aside, though, I found myself often wondering how much time this movie had left until we would get to something actually happening.
I accept and realize off the bat that this is not straight horror in any way. I was certainly not expecting blood and gore or scary monsters. As a noirish 40s thriller, though, it certainly falls in the extended horror family tree. That's problem number one for me, right there. I'm just not the biggest fan of this subgenre. Censorship and sinking standards had slowly killed the golden age of horror that had come a decade before. It would be another decade before drive-in monsters invaded the genre. The 40s is, probably the low point for horror. You had Universal continuing to pump out the monster sequels, but there was little new material being produced. What was coming out was often this type of film - slow burn thrillers that relied a lot more on shadow and mood than action. The master was Val Lewton, of course, who is another film maker whose films I don't enjoy as much as the larger community.
So, what's with the history lesson? I say all of that to point out that I generally don't like this kind of film to begin with, so I will admit I'm not the best judge, but I know that there will be plenty of people who share my opinion, as well, so it's worth putting out there.
This is a gorgeous movie at times. Plenty of shadows and spooky basements and the whole film takes place during a thunderstorm, creating a good sense of mood. That's all there really is, though. NOTHING happens in this movie for an hour. We get a little bit of setup at the beginning and a "thrilling" finale, but the hour in between is talking and more talking, though not from our main character who can't talk at all and spends a lot of time making awkward faces.
I do see some early traces of things to come that probably make this an important film. There are subtle foreshadows of the serial killer genre, with the killer stalking victims from closets and a definite sense of the "final girl" that would come in later movies. We even get a black-gloved killer to predate the work of Bava and the giallo movement. Those curiosities aside, though, I found myself often wondering how much time this movie had left until we would get to something actually happening.