Just watched the first act this time around. As a short film it is possibly the most succinct and terrifying 25 minutes in American horror cinema. (So let’s just pretend the other 70 minutes don’t exist!)
I am aware of Fred Walton’s short film The Sitter which is how he landed this feature, and is structurally nearly identical to this opening. And it’s pretty good (and available on YouTube), but so much of the effectiveness of When a Stranger Calls…
sort of the French-arthouse-equivalent of a boomer stand-up comic asking “are you offended yet???” while they endlessly orbit around the three same jokes.
lots to think about and nothing to feel. Such a colossal step-down from Raw, imo, where the body horror feels more motivated, personal, and genuinely revolting. Here everything fails to connect because nothing is meant to be real— she’s not actually a serial killer, that’s just an metaphor for her apathy; she’s not actually fucking a car,…
The Last Warning is all cobwebs and dark hallways and twisted staircases and murder. In other words, it's all frosting and no cake, but it's a good sugar rush.
I think a solid case could be made for Paul Leni as one of the great silent movie directors; his technical precision holding up even among the likes of Murnau, Eisenstein, Von Sternberg, Chaplin, or Dreyer. He knows exactly where to place a shot— if not for an emotional or logistical…
This is maybe the most I’ve ever changed my mind about a film? I gave this 1½ stars on my original viewing three years ago, and I distinctly remember the bad taste it left in my mouth. I felt it was loud and convoluted, dancing around a great number of lofty themes without ever really digging into any of them. The sex and violence and bizarre imagery seemed there simply for shock value; it played more like a parody of…
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