Dead of Night
An early British anthology film from Ealing studios, Dead of Night tells the story of an Architect who heads to an English country house, only to experience a sense of Deja Vu along with a very real sense of dread. The other guests tell a variety of ghost stories, from the hilariously funny to the genuinely creepy. A psychologist attempts to explain the stories away but as the evening progresses it becomes more apparent that the premonition is coming true.
Dead of night has aged fairly well, its perhaps not going to have the same affect on an audience that it would of had on release but its still a terrific horror film that influence Amicus to release a string of anthology films through the 60's and 70's. The Blu-ray release looks magnificent.
The Killing + Killers kiss
Decided to start watching Kubricks films now I have the box-set. Starting with these two from Arrow.
The Killing is a surprisingly brutal and effective heist movie about the robbing of a race track. while the film was written by Kubrick, the script has a lot of work from Jim Thompson, one of Americas best crime novelists and as a result has some terrific dialogue and some superb depictions of human evil and greed. Kubrick orchestrates things with a meticulous eye for detail and the film plays with time and structure in some very interesting ways as the film switches between different characters viewpoints.
Kubrick Followed this with another Noir piece, this time about a down on his luck boxer who falls for a dame with a jealous, and very dangerous boyfriend. This one reeks of the seedy underbelly of the city, malt liquor and cigarettes as everything unfolds. Like with the Killing Kubrick delivers some startling B&W photography and some very well executed scenes including some brilliantly choreographed boxing that must have been some influence on Scorsese for Raging Bull.
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