Showing posts with label Sam Neill. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sam Neill. Show all posts

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Kitley's Krypt MYSTERY PHOTO #65



Another week, another MYSTERY PHOTO!

Jon Kitley, pillar of the Chicago Horror Community and head honcho over at KITLEY'S KRYPT, wants to challenge your horror knowledge. Week in, week out, he posts a Mystery Photo - sometimes from an obscure horror title, sometimes just an unusual shot from a well-known classic. We figured our faithful Claw readers would enjoy the challenge!

Our last photo was from idiosyncratic Polish director Andrzej Zulawski’s deliberately abrasive and queasy film POSSESSION (1981), which assails its audience from the opening scenes and never lets up for a second, leaving the viewer exhausted, exasperated and exhilarated. Returning home from a vaguely defined military mission, Sam Neill is alarmed to find that his relationship with wife Isabelle Adjani has disintegrated into complete hostility and disgust. He soon discovers that she has taken up with several lovers, one of which might not be entirely…human. A technically astounding film, with Bruno Nyutten’s cinematography swirling about the locations and characters with orgiastic glee and Neill and Adjani unleashing extraordinary high-wire performances that rival anything these admittedly fine artists have done before or since. (Adjani would win Best Actress Awards from both Cannes and the Cesars, and after witnessing her wrenching, utterly selfless showstopping aria of suffering in the train tunnel, who could deny her?) F/x wizard Carlo Rambaldi designed the memorable creature effects.



Let's see how you fare with this week's selection:



If you provide the correct answer, your name will be announced next week on the Kitley's Krypt website (http://www.kitleyskrypt.com), along with a new photo. Even if you don't know the answer, we welcome any sorta-kinda educated guess! So, send in your emails today and good luck!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Fool's Views - DAYBREAKERS (2009)


What's the good doctor's feelings about the new vampire flick out (the one not for 14-year-old girls)? Let's find out...



Daybreakers (2009) (1st viewing)
d. Sperig, Michael/Sperig, Peter

The boys from Down Under follow up their high-energy, low-budget zombie flick Undead with a vampire epic that starts off with such promising and well-developed mythology that it’s more than a little disappointing when it devolves into “small band of rebels vs. the all-controlling corporate powers” action clichés, complete with predictable last minute double crosses and irksome jump scares (in this case, in the form of annoying vampire bat shrieks). Which is not to say Daybreakers is a bad movie, because it isn’t – filled with capable performances from Ethan Hawke, Sam Neill, Claudia Karvan (the Famke Janssen ringer who appeared in last year’s Long Weekend update) and an especially enthusiastic Willem Dafoe, as well as gorgeously stylized cinematography and production design, there’s a lot to admire from the Sperig Brothers in terms of presentation. But with two variations on all-too-familiar themes under their belts, one hopes that their next venture exhibits more than just inspired repackaging.