The Screaming Skull (1958) Review

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(More customer reviews)You know, I like this little shocker and don't understand why there isn't a better print of it around. It's rather spooky and quite effective. The story concerns a husband bringing his new bride home to his family estate. She's recently out of a mental hospital due to the shock of her parents' accidental drownings. He's a widower and the shadow of his former wife {whom he's killed) hangs over everything. The bride (Peggy Webber, later a "Dragnet" regular on TV) is now rich from her inheritance and the husband tries to drive her insane and/or to suicide to get the money. He plants a skull everywhere trying to scare her and the screeching of his late wife's peacocks that still roam the grounds of the estate add to the spookiness. The screeching of the peacocks is used to emulate screams that Webber thinks is the skull screaming. But the estates' looney gardner (who loved the late wife) is on to everything and has a skull of his own that he keeps hidden in a murky fountain. Just as Webber has screamed herself into a near catatonic state from fright, the ghost of the late wife shows up to exact revenge. This sequence is handled very well as the specter is dressed in a flowing gardening dress and big hat with a skull for a face. It floats out of the greenhouse (her favorite place as she loved flowers) and chases Webber down the garden path and into the house---at night of course and very effective. It's all very low budget but well done in b&w with creepy music and a good performance from Webber. The estate is properly run down and gothic looking and shadows are used to good effect. I hope to see a decent print of this one day. I'd love to own it.

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Goodbye, Dragon Inn Review

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(More customer reviews)In Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn, he says goodbye to Taiwan's old way of life with King Hu's seminal Dragon Inn unspooling in the background. It's really hard to review it as there isn't much of a plot to speak of, and the first line of dialogue is not even uttered until half way into this 82 minutes film. For the most of the film, characters just navigate the labyrinth-like theater in search of companionship that never materializes, which probably infers to the presistent alienation in our modern world. Tsai's usual theme of water returns here too, and his reputation as the world's greatest restroom director (by one critic) is also reinforced. Tsai's original intent was to make a short film, but later decided to expand it into a near full length feature. That decision might explain the film's lack of concrete material, as scene after scene the camera just lingers for minutes at a stretch without anything happening on screen. Then again, that self-indulgent style is exactly Tsai's hallmark ever since his first film. I am not exactly complaining though, even if I prefer a slightly faster pace and more meat to the story. Still, your patience will be rewarded by an outstanding final that's pure melancholic poetry, proving once again he is the master at constructing the romance of loneliness and alienation. BTW, the film has cameos of two original actors from Dragon Inn.

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The Grudge 3 (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was also one of the few who saw it already and to be honest, it was a big improvement over The Grudge 2. The acting's pretty decent and the story was a lot more coherent this time around. The deaths weren't all that special but they definitely stepped up in the violence department to say the least. The ghosts were more aggressive and the story gets pretty intense as we get closer to seeing if this is truly the end of Kayako and Toshio's killing spree, but when it's all said and done, I had very mixed feelings about the ending. It's an ending that can truly be interpreted in so many different ways. If this is in fact the final movie of the trilogy, then we're left with a lot to think about. Rather that's a good or a bad thing is up to you.
On the the whole, despite me seeing it early, I'm seriously buying it no matter what. It definitely wasn't a waste of my time, but it doesn't surpass the first one in any way.If you're a die hard fan like me, you'll enjoy what this film has to offer to some extent.

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