Compelling, atmospheric Gothic mystery, dripping with mood and menace, about a young, struggling actress getting embroiled with a couple of disturbed elderly men in an isolated old house during a winter storm. Roddy McDowell is terrific as a servile but unhinged assistant to Jan Rubes' charming - and over-the-top - psychopath. Arthur Penn directs with a steady hand, with lots of sly nods to Hitchcock, and Mary Steenburgen gives one of her better performances. The climax goes all-out Gothic shocker, and devolves into silliness, but, overall, this is a timeless suspense piece that is good for a chilly winter's night.
* A loose remake of Joseph H. Lewis's My Name Is Julia Ross (1945).
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2022.
Watch/Listen to review here:
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. He is also the host of The Dark Fantastic Podcast. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @DFantasticPodcast
No comments:
Post a Comment