Film Trace

The sixth and last film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Alfred Hitchcock's farewell to London, the macabre and dissociated Frenzy.

Upon release, Frenzy was widely seen as a return to form for Hitchcock, but it has developed a rather odd reputation since its release fifty years ago. This gritty serial killer romp through Covent Garden has been cited as a forerunner to the bleaker side of thrillers we have seen in spades over the last three decades. But as we unpeel the layers, a more insidious ideology quickly becomes apparent. The misogyny is deafening, and the dim view of humanity soaks deeper than cynicism. Hitchcock was an angry man near the end of his life, and Frenzy is his rage-filled swan song.

For our chaser film, we survey Wait Until Dark (1967), a pulpy psychological thriller starring Audrey Hepburn with a career-best performance from a young Alan Arkin.

The fifth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is William Friedkin's grim and precise Sorcerer (1977).

Released in the shadow of Star Wars and Friedkin's own masterpiece, The Exorcist, this bizarre down-and-out adventure film was a total financial failure. Critics didn't much like it either. But time has a funny way of shuffling the deck, and Sorcerer has found itself with a lucky draw. Film critics, nerds, and aficionados have reclaimed Sorcerer as a lost masterpiece. But some at Film Trace are skeptical. Is the Letterboxd set being hyperbolic or was Friedkin's fatalistic road trip movie really a high mark of the auteur golden age?

For our chaser film, we transverse the wobbly Deathtrap (1982) and try to plot its bewildering narrative convulsions.

Special Guest: The Mikes from Forgotten Cinema, a podcast for forgotten films that deserve a second chance.

The fourth film in our Existential Thriller cycle is Neil Jordan's infamous 1992 political enigma, The Crying Game (1992).

A film's notoriety can easily mute or distort what is actually on the screen. The Crying Game is an interesting and rich movie that was unfortunately overwhelmed by its own infamy. The film's US distributor, Miramax, decided to start a sly whisper campaign to create controversy surrounding a plot twist in the film. The hush-hush angle worked wonders and the film became a smash hit in America. The popularity of the film along with Miramax's carnival barker campaign masked Neil Jordan's layered and fiery script as well as the immense and historic performance of Jaye Davidson. The film deserves a deep reconsideration outside the cultural confines of the atavistic early 90s.

For our chaser film, we untangle the narrative tendrils of David Mamet's oft-passed-by House of Games (1987).

Special Guest: Natasha Alvar, film editor at Cultured Vultures and Rotten-Tomato Approved film critic.

The third film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is David Fincher's Norcal mindbender, The Game (1997)

David Fincher is one the most powerful and popular auteurs working in film and tv today. We revisit what has strangely and wrongly become one of his minor works. Fincher teamed up with Micheal Douglas in the pre-Fight Club days to concoct this highly entertaining yet perplexing thriller. The audience is effectively thrust into the chaos unfolding around the protagonist as his palatial life begins to crumble. By the end, it feels like you have been on a theme park ride, or rather, you have been taken for a ride. The much scoffed-at ending perfectly fits the kaleidoscopic tone of the proceeding ninety minutes. This is genre work gone mad.

For our chaser film, we regrettably reexamine Christopher Nolan's Insomnia (2002). What an absolute trudge of a film. Thankfully our broteur whisperer, Molly, helps us decipher this broodfest.

Special Guests: Great friend of the show Molly is back!

The second film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Tony Gilroy's aughtie classic, Michael Clayton (2007).

On paper, Michael Clayton probably seems like a taut legal thriller played to the middle-aged set, a John Grisham movie with the latest A-Listers. Tony Gilroy chose a much different path by crafting a cerebral thriller infused with corporate nihilism and existential longing. Clooney plays Clayton as a formerly charming bagman who stayed too long at the party. He is stranded and saddled with financial debt, vertiginous self-doubt, and severe moral failing. Clayton is living in what Jean-Paul Sartre would call bad faith. He must face the immediate danger all around him while also breaking free from his calcified moral will. A seemingly small film greatly amplified by Gilroy's impeccable craftsmanship and brilliant performances from Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, and George Clooney.

For our chaser film, we grapple with The Hunt (2012), a Danish film detailing how hearsay can become an avalanche that can bury anyone's life. Created before cancel culture was a thing, The Hunt offers a rather intense refutation of how groups pass judgment.

Special Guests: Tommy Thevenet & Tim Sestito from the great Haven't Scene It: A Movie Podcast

The first film in our new Existential Thrillers cycle is Alex Garland's bizarre and bold Men (2022).

Alex Garland has quietly made himself into one of the more exciting filmmakers of the A24 set. The former novelist turned screenwriter turned auteur exploded onto the arthouse scene with his first film Ex Machina (2014). The success of that film led to his major studio debut Annihilation (2018). The spectacular failure of that film led him back to the indie world where we find him with Men. What starts out as a woman-alone thriller transforms into a formalist nightmare, for all parties involved. Garland shoots for the stars, but where does he actually land?

For our chaser film, we pursue Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). While less conspicuous than our main film, Deer has deep and twisted roots that slowly reveal themselves in this glacial thriller.

The sixth and final film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is the landmark exploitation film, The Last House on the Left (1972). 

Made off the proceeds of a successful pornographic film, this genuinely gonzo horror film sparked the careers of two kings of horror, Wes Craven and Friday the 13th creator, Sean Cunningham. On the surface, this rape-revenge exploitation film plays it straight: shock, rape, murder, revenge. But beneath the schlock is an avant-garde rip current that is essentially a middle finger to American Exceptionalism, a canary in the coalmine for a desiccated and fraying empire. This is a bizarre juxtaposition that never really settles right in your stomach. What is depicted vs what you feel seems separated by a grand canyon of satire, which is why we chose this as our final film in our Self-Aware Horror series.

For our chaser film, we try to decipher The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967). It is a lark, a common parody, or is there something more going on in Roman Polanski's first major studio film. The year after Vampire came out, modern horror began with The Night of Living Dead. We try to decide whether Vampire Killers was a harbinger or an anachronism.

The fifth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1982's mashup of George Romero and Stephen King, Creepshow.

Creepshow is an anthology horror film created as an hommage to the trashbin mid-century comic series, EC Comics. Romero and King grew up with EC Comics and its twisted tales of the macabre. Here the comic's ghastly ethos is distilled into five different segments starring big names of the time: Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Ted Danson, Leslie Nielson, and Stephen King himself. The film's particular mixture of gore, faux-naif satire, and moral comeuppance feels quite out of place today, a little Molotov mocktail aimed at the classic bogeyman of 1950's social conformity.

Special Guest: Max from the lively and fun Galaxy Of Film podcast.

For our chaser film, we face the music with House (1977). This bizzaro historical curio works the exact opposite of Creepshow. House feels like it could have been made yesterday: absurdist surrealism horror of a hipster vein. One suspects the t-shirts inspired by the film are more popular and seen than the film itself.

The fourth film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 1992's gonzo horror splatterfest Dead Alive aka Braindead

Dead Alive is a shocking film for a variety of reasons, but perhaps most astonishing is that it came from the same man who helped create the most recognized and beloved films of the last 20 years. Peter Jackson became famous for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film series. They exist alongside the Star Wars and MCU films as some of the most popular global cinema ever made. But Jackson started out where most young aspiring filmmakers do, in the free-for-all low-budget haven of horror. It was there that Jackson developed as a great filmmaker. Dead Alive was his first masterpiece, a zombie comedy masquerading as a bizarre period piece that devoured all notions of good taste with its insatiable appetite for blood, guts, and pus. Beautifully deranged.

Special Guest: Brian Eggert, RT approved film critic of Deep Focus Review 

For our chaser film, we had no other choice than Evil Dead 2 (1987). Two of the best horror comedies ever made, back to back. We talk at length about how comedy and horror overlap, and how they work together to tickle and titillate a piquing audience.

The third film in our Self-Aware Horror cycle is 2002's zombie renaissance 28 Days Later

28 Days Later reanimated the zombie subgenre of horror, which had been left for dead and maligned where it always had been. Yes, technically speaking, the infected in the film are not zombies. But they might as well be. Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead remake came a couple of years later in 2004 and helped pushed the zombie genre fully into the mainstream where it stayed for the next 18 years. The highly popular tv series, The Walking Dead, is finally ending this year after twelve years on the air and two spin-off series with more to come. Zombies don't die.

While director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have attempted to play down the zombie connection, 28 Days Later plays like an intricate and explosive hommage to George Romero's original Dead trilogy. Shot entirely on early digital video recorders, the film maintains a late 90s early 2000s look that is post analog but Pre HD. Even less appealing than the film's digital graininess is its cynical depiction of humanity as the last vestiges of the civilized world fall away. It is a nightmare that feels all too true and relevant to today's world.

Special Guest: Good friend of the show, Riley, who is our resident Wes Craven scholar. 

For our chaser film, we have chosen 1997's Scream 2, the slasher thrill ride that came out less than a year after the original. Craven and Williamson are back here with the mainline cast and a tight story that somehow doesn't tarnish the first film. Often cited as one of the best horror sequels, Scream 2 is now 25 years old, so perhaps it is time to question its lauded status?