I’ve decided to re-watch some 70s cinema lately. Having been let down by much of modern cinema (Joker being the sole real exception this year), I’ve decided to re-experience the classics I’ve not seen for several years. Given that Halloween was a little over a week back, I thought I’d re-watch some early 70s Horror films, and so opted for both The Wicker Man and The Exorcist having not seen them for years (and both being released in 1973). Both were very good indeed, and a little more avant-garde than I remember them being.
The Wicker Man benefits from a brilliantly realised atmosphere conjured by the understated yet ultimately sinister village setting and direction, coupled with a broad selection of eerie characters, and it’s difficult to go wrong with Christopher Lee at any rate. The Exorcist was brilliantly acted across the board, as well as featuring many surreal and subtextual sequences which seem overlooked by many in favour of the more overt horror later in the film (Karras seeing his mother near the subway within a delusional dream sequence with no diegetic sound was very well done- in fact, the film very cleverly plays with diegetic and non-diegetic sound at numerous points). There’s some haunting and understated imagery elsewhere too, specifically concerning the motif of viscous dogs (within both the opening scene in Iraq and said dream sequence) amidst other things, alluding to how evil (in the form of the demon) can so easily generate impulse in even the most casual of scenarios- though the film is renowned for its shock value, it’s overall presentation is less overt and more trusting of its audience’s intelligence.
The best mainstream horrors films boast lots of eerie and unnerving subtext beyond the surface (which so many completely fail to understand) and both of these films very much succeeded in this respect.
The Wicker Man benefits from a brilliantly realised atmosphere conjured by the understated yet ultimately sinister village setting and direction, coupled with a broad selection of eerie characters, and it’s difficult to go wrong with Christopher Lee at any rate. The Exorcist was brilliantly acted across the board, as well as featuring many surreal and subtextual sequences which seem overlooked by many in favour of the more overt horror later in the film (Karras seeing his mother near the subway within a delusional dream sequence with no diegetic sound was very well done- in fact, the film very cleverly plays with diegetic and non-diegetic sound at numerous points). There’s some haunting and understated imagery elsewhere too, specifically concerning the motif of viscous dogs (within both the opening scene in Iraq and said dream sequence) amidst other things, alluding to how evil (in the form of the demon) can so easily generate impulse in even the most casual of scenarios- though the film is renowned for its shock value, it’s overall presentation is less overt and more trusting of its audience’s intelligence.
The best mainstream horrors films boast lots of eerie and unnerving subtext beyond the surface (which so many completely fail to understand) and both of these films very much succeeded in this respect.