REPULSION (1965)

When I first saw this film many years ago I thought it was one of the best things I'd ever seen.  Watching it again now I still think the same thing.

Young Catherine Deneuve works in a London beauty shop and lives with her older sister in a large apartment.  Outwardly, Catherine looks normal, but if you look closer you'll see that the elevator isn't going all the way to the top.  She's very distant and walks around as if she's sleepwalking.  For some unknown reason, she is both repulsed and obsessed with sex.  At night she covers her head with a pillow so she doesn't have to listen to her sister gettin' busy with her boyfriend, but at the same time she has intense visions/experiences of a molester breaking into her room and ravishing her.

Things take a massive turn for the worse when her sister goes on vacation with her boyfriend and leaves her all alone in the apartment.  Almost instantly her brain starts to melt and her visions go wild...and Satan have mercy on anybody who happens to drop by.

The scenario for REPULSION is great, but what really pushes REPULSION into the Better Films of All Time territory is the acting by Deneuve, the lighting by Gilbert Taylor, music by Chico Hamilton and the direction of Polanski.  When you watch the extras on the Criterion blu-ray you can see that he has a clear vision of what he wants and the means to make it a reality, although on the audio commentary a lot of the things he now dislikes about the film are some of my favorite parts.

Even all of these years later and so many repeat watchings I still love this movie.  It flows so seamlessly that at times you almost forget that you are watching a film.  Highly recommended.

SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER (2004)

And 2004's "Dumb Ass of the Year" Award goes to...Douglas Whooly!  Poor Douglas Whooly is a highly-disturbed little kid who's obsessed with the extremely shitty-looking video game "Satan's Little Helper" so much so that he dresses up like a devil and rambles on constantly about helping Satan...he also wants to marry his older sister.  So now when she comes home from college for Halloween and brings home her new boyfriend, Douglas is really upset and runs off to find Satan.  He doesn't quite find Satan, but he does find a serial killer in a demon outfit and decides to give him a helping hand killing people.

That story idea sounds equally both promising and stupid and guess what?  That's exactly what happens.  Once you get over the very low budget, SLH isn't so bad at the beginning.  The kid who plays Douglas definitely does a good portrayal of a kid too stupid for his own good and as wacky as the story sounds, it's actually kind of believable for a little while but then it gets a little too grand for it's own good and instead of playing it subtle, it spreads the malevolence all over town "Needful Things"-style and fails completely.

Despite the silly ending, SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is still a fun lite-horror film that's greatly benefited by the presence of Katheryn Winnick who is absolutely gorgeous and does a fine job considering she isn't given much to work with.  It kinda brings to mind Jennifer Pudavick's standout performance in WRONG TURN 4.  Anyway, since there's not really any blood, gore or nudity I would imagine that most horror fans would hate it, but if you're opening minded and can appreciate a film with a low budget then check it out.

Are those "buttons" on the right actually stickers?!

THE VIRGINIAN (1946)

I've never read the novel "The Virginian" by Owen Wister which I've heard was really good, so I can't compare this film to the source material.  But I liked the movie.  Barbara Britton plays a young woman who travels out West to take a job as a school teacher in a small Wyoming town.  Upon her arrival she immediately gets the attention of all the men in town including two old cowboy friends Joel McCrea and Sonny Tufts.  At first they make a game out of winning the affections of Barbara, but then things take a darker turn when Sonny joins a group of cattle rustlers (ran by the all black wearing Brian Donlevy).

A bunch of the standard old western stuff happens...horses racing about, campfires, square dancing, trash talking, shootings, people can't read, gambling in a saloon, frontier justice, posse tracking down rustlers and so on.  The town of Medicine Bow is described as just a bump in the road, but it looked like your standard western backlot to me.  Some of the outdoor scenes were obviously shot on a soundstage and McCrea is quite a bit older than Britton, but despite all those things THE VIRGINIAN was still an entertaining film and one I would gladly watch again.