October, 2007 - Glebe Report
October, 2007 - Glebe Report
October, 2007 - Glebe Report
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30 <strong>Glebe</strong> <strong>Report</strong> <strong>October</strong> 12, <strong>2007</strong><br />
BY ZIA LANDIS<br />
TED AND LOIS AT THE MOVIES<br />
Thrillers<br />
BY LOIS SIEGEL<br />
Slither, 2006<br />
Directed by James Gunn<br />
Rated R<br />
Slither is a classic B-level horror<br />
film—an isolated backwoods town,<br />
swarms of creepy crawlies, and the heartwarming<br />
if not predictable romantic subplot.<br />
To top it all off there is even a zombie<br />
element that should delight any<br />
diehard horror fan.<br />
Although hardly a family movie, with a<br />
severe cursing streak barely two minutes<br />
in, Slither still manages to maintain a<br />
dark comedic appeal. It does so with several<br />
well placed lines delivered by<br />
Nathan Fillion as the town sheriff Bill<br />
Pardy. Elizabeth Banks plays opposite<br />
Fillion as Starla Grant, the town’s doeeyed<br />
beauty who is forced at a tender age<br />
to marry the crude yet wealthy Grant<br />
Grant (Michael Rooker).<br />
As is often the case in comedy-sci-fi-feel-good-horror movies, all of the<br />
main characters’ problems are inadvertently solved by an alien menace: the<br />
wrongs are somehow righted, the good are rewarded, the evil are punished and<br />
everyone is either together and happy or dead in the end.<br />
The Nightmare Before Christmas, 1993<br />
Directed by Henry Selick<br />
Rated PG<br />
The Nightmare Before Christmas has established something of a cult following.<br />
Directed by Henry Selick and written by the delightfully odd Tim<br />
Burton, one can barely make it through a Hallowe’en season without seeing at<br />
least a few shop windows decorated with Jack Skellington or his doll creation<br />
love, Sally, in this skeleton who stole Christmas story.<br />
Edward Scissorhands, 1990<br />
Directed by Tim Burton<br />
Rated PG-13<br />
Edward Scissorhands is widely recognized to be one of Tim Burton’s most<br />
touching and powerful films. The story tells of a young man named Edward<br />
(played by Johnny Depp) who is created, then abandoned by his “father” (Vincent<br />
Price), an inventor who dies before his completion, leaving him with only<br />
an array of knives and scissors for hands. Edward is adopted after years of isolation<br />
by his friendly and ever compassionate local Avon lady (Dianne Wiest).<br />
Life in a garish pastel suburb proves to be both a rewarding and terrible experience<br />
for Edward as he tries to understand the world around him. The childlike<br />
man falls in love with Wiest’s teenaged daughter (Winona Ryder) and his<br />
first real chance at a life seems likely to crumble around him before it’s really<br />
begun.<br />
One Hour Photo, 2002<br />
Written and Directed by Mark<br />
Romanek<br />
Rated 14A<br />
Robin Williams is outstanding as Sy<br />
Parrish, who we quickly realize is very<br />
creepy when compared to normal people<br />
who go about their days with a variety of<br />
activities. He’s a loner, lives in a sterile,<br />
dull apartment and doesn’t have much of<br />
a life. Sy has this thing about being part<br />
of a family. To ‘brighten’ his days, he<br />
makes copies of other people’s photos for<br />
himself. He can do this because he’s the<br />
photo guy at the neighbourhood big box<br />
store. His obsession becomes obvious<br />
when we see his wall of photos... those he<br />
has collected over the years from the rolls<br />
of film of one family. An eerie feeling<br />
hovers over this film when Sy begins to stalk this family, watching what they<br />
read, what they do, and finally their marital problems. To say that Williams is<br />
a genius is an understatement. His acting is superb.<br />
The director of photography is Jeff Cronenweth. Jeff’s shooting style is<br />
strong. The way Williams is captured on the screen leads to a vision reflecting<br />
the world of a very disturbed man. The strength of the film is the realization<br />
that any of us could be stalked at any time. We are all vulnerable.<br />
Repulsion, 1965<br />
Directed by Roman Polanski<br />
Unrated<br />
Roman Polanski certainly ranks high in the echelons of psychological<br />
thriller directors. “Repulsion” stars Catherine Deneuve, only 20 at the time.<br />
Deneuve creates a disturbed character suffering from paranoia who shuts herself<br />
off in what becomes a nightmarish apartment, with a rabbit rotting amidst<br />
maggots and flies in a dark corner ...<br />
Targets, 1968<br />
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich<br />
Rated R<br />
Boris Karloff appears in “Targets” as an aging horror-film star. Intercutting<br />
two stories, the film focuses on the re-telling of a 1966 incident with<br />
ex-marine Charles Whitman, who, after murdering his mother and wife,<br />
armed himself with rifles and handguns and went on a rampage, shooting<br />
from a tower above a University of Texas campus, killing or wounding over<br />
45 people.<br />
Zia Landis, 17, daughter of our regular reviewer, Ted Landis, is visiting from California where she recently graduated from high school.<br />
102 Renfrew Ave.<br />
$429,900<br />
156 Third Ave.<br />
$549,900
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