For this session, Keith chose four movies that weren't technically horror films, but that may have been. These all told stories that were miserable, depressing, and/or scary. They were, effectively, horror-adjacent.
Reaction and Other Folderol
This may have been the best session Keith has ever put together. There's usually one movie that I doesn't really catch me. But this? Wow! I could easily have justified rating any or all of these a 10. And yet I likely would never have heard of any of these movies if Keith hadn't chosen them for us.
The movies were all very different from each other, both in subject matter and feel. But there are some elements they all share in common. All four films involve people caught up in a hellish nightmare scenario beyond their control. All four films are at that stage of being almost-epics; They have, in some ways, almost the feel of an epic, but don't quite get there. And, of course, all four build that edge-of your seat tension that can leave you breathless. Which, of course, is why Keith said they may as well be horror films.
The Music Lovers is a sort-of biopic of famed composer, Peter Tchaikovsky. It focuses on sexuality -- specifically his homosexuality and his unhappy marriage to asexual enthusiast. There's glorious music playing in counterpoint to the scenes of abject misery and no one escapes happy. I don't know how much of the presentation is established fact, how much is consensus, and how much is simply purely speculative fiction. And, honestly, I don't care.
Fraulein Doktor was also based (loosely, I presume) on true-life events. This one, a joint Italian/Yugoslavian production, was about the exploits of German spy, Elsbeth Schragmuller, during World War I. This was an excellent blending of spy thriller, war film and caper movie. Not a whole lot is known about Schragmuller, so a lot of the movie is necesarilly speculative. I will note that there were some breathtaking battlefront scenes, including horrifying visualizations of combat with mustard gas. The cathartic, tensive-reducing ending was perfect.
Sorcerer tells the story of four men trying to stay alive while driving trucks of nitroglycerine through the jungles of South America. The movie starts with four vignettes, each telling the backstory of one of the men. After that, it turns to their existence in South America before signing up for their dangerous mission. Throughout, there are great visuals, and tension. It is a little long, clocking in at two hours. But it never feels slow. There were times, especially midway through the film, that I had trouble following certain specifics, but ultimately that didn't matter.
Wake in Fright is an Australian production, telling the story of a seemingly mild-mannered teacher who, goes on vacation and finds himself stuck in an outback town (admittedly, he teaches in what seems to be too small and rural to be called an outback town) where life seems to center on beer and violence. So much of this movie portrayed events that were both inconsequential and fascinating. It was exciting and horrifying. I kept guessing at what would happen, and I kept being wrong, which was good.
In the end, I only rated one of these movies a ten, but the fact is that, had I been in a slightly different mood, I could have rated any or all of them as 10's. It's not the purpose of the class to just watch great movies -- Keith has shown us things like Snuff, Blood Freak and Russ Myers' Vixen!. But I have to acknowledge how greatb it is when a session involves four absolute gems -- especially when they're gems that I never would have heard of if not for the class.Trailers
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