BLIND SUN – An apocalyptic mood takes hold in rural Greece following a drought. Wanderer Ashraf, housesitting for some vaguely hostile rich people whose plush pad is a bit like a compound, starts to freak out after he realises he has a stalker. Shudder seems to have a liking for nicely photographed movies that substitute atmosphere for story. That’s OK by me, I like that too. ‘Blind Sun’ does well in evoking the eeriness of isolation in the sun, a feeling that takes on a vaguely supernatural edge when a nearby excavation uncovers fragments of a strange monument. True obliqueness might be a little beyond ‘Blind Sun’s grasp; the end is fairly pat, as is the implied “is it ghost stuff or is someone having a go… or maybe I’m just going mad” element. But all this ramps up the paranoia quite well, making it an enjoyable watch that matches lovely visuals with unsettling atmos and political subtext.
PIN – I’d forgotten what a strange little film this was. ‘Pin’ is about many things, one of them being the sadness of the passing time, another being the trauma resulting from premature exposure to mannequin-shagging nurses. It makes Hitchcock-type moves, but ever so clumsily, as if hoping to distract us from the very odd tone brewing in the background. I’ve only seen it three times (including this viewing), but on each occasion I’ve felt really absorbed, wrapped up in the offness of David Hewlett‘s dummy fixation, and in the black comedy and pathos as well; there’s a bit of heart inside that plastic shell. I’ve never been very sure whether it’s another one that wavers unnecessarily over the supernature vs madness angle, but that can either add to the charm or not. Considering it’s such an alluringly odd film and reasonably well-known, I’d say it’s been overlooked next to some of the eighties mediocrities given stellar workovers by the boutiques. In fact, there must be a reason why it’s not on blu ray, it would be an obvious choice for the likes of Arrow, who after all put it out on DVD back in the day.
THE ASPHYX – As much as I enjoy seventies UK stuff, I do find the whole drawing room aspect of period-based horror a bit of a drag, particularly if the visual style is as stuffy. ‘The Asphyx’ has several things going for it, including pseudoscience involving gonzo devices and the feeling of stage-craft, damnation through eternal grief, and the presence of Robert Powell, Jane Lapotaire etc. The Asphyx itself is a wailing phosphorescence somewhere between a bird, a lizard, and a skull with a gaping maw, but I guess the main theme, the whole tragedy of buying into someone else’s obsession, gets under your skin even more. It held my interest, but I kept wishing it’d been directed by Andy Milligan.
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