Today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema continued the month-long Halloween theme with a look at films about psychos, serial killers, and other madmen. Here is a recap of the films addressed on the show and a few that didn’t make it into the episode.
American Psycho
Adapted from the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho is about a Wall Street executive who spends his nights as a serial killer. The film significantly toned down the violence of the novel while emphasizing its dark comedy aspects and the movie was a successful adaptation that may have saved the book. Looking at the film more than a decade later, it is remarkably prescient in its depiction of a Wall Street employee who preys on the lower classes.
Basic Instinct
Basic Instinct is about a police detective trying to catch a murderer who is inspired by erotic fiction and it has a performance by Sharon Stone as one of the great movie villains. Basic Instinct was fairly controversial at the time of its release. The film is very violent and it was one of the first films to be threatened with the NC-17 rating by the MPAA.
Cape Fear
There are two versions of Cape Fear: the 1962 original staring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum and the 1991 remake staring Nick Nolte and Robert DeNiro. It is a draw as to which of these films is better although curiously they both use the same score by Bernard Herrmann.
Dahmer
In the early 2000s there were a string of direct-to-DVD biopics about serial killers including John Wayne Gacy and Ed Gein. Dahmer was a surprisingly good dramatization of the Milwaukee-based serial killer, featuring Jeremy Renner in the lead role.
The Devil’s Rejects
Rob Zombie followed up his directorial debut House of 1000 Corpses with The Devil’s Rejects and it was a significant improvement over its predecessor. Jettisoning the campy look of the first film, The Devil’s Rejects was a lean and nasty road film that was one of the best horror pictures of the 2000s.
Edmund
Written by David Mamet, directed by Stuart Gordon, and starring William H. Macy, this film tells the story of a businessman who descends into madness.
Fatal Attraction
Another Michael Douglas thriller, Fatal Attraction is about a married man who is stalked by the woman he had an affair with. It is a very effective suspense picture with a number of memorable sequences and a frightening performance by Glenn Close. Fatal Attraction was a cause of debate at the time of its release, with some critics and feminists accusing the film of being misogynist.
Hannibal
Despite the fact that The Silence of the Lambs was a tremendous critical and commercial success, it would be almost a decade before the follow up novel was published and then adapted to the screen. Directed by Ridley Scott, Hannibal is a very different film from The Silence of the Lambs but it is also quite different from the source novel, making critical changes to the ending. It is a flawed film but it is also grotesquely beautiful.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is a challenging and unpleasant movie but its nihilism is matched by the filmmakers’ earnestness. This is not an exploitation film and its treatment of psychopathology is far more serious than many Hollywood pictures dealing with the same subject.
Ichi the Killer
Directed by Takashi Miike, Ichi the Killer tells the story of an assassin who becomes a pawn in yakuza politics. The following video is NSFW.
M
M is one of German director Firtz Lang’s great pictures, maybe his greatest. The film is about a community’s reaction to a series of child murders and its influence can be seen in later movies like Zodiac and Summer of Sam.
Manhunter
The Silence of the Lambs was not the first film adaptation of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels. In 1986 Michael Mann adapted the novel Red Dragon into Manhunter. This film features William Peterson as FBI profiler Will Graham and Brian Cox as Dr. Lecter. Stylized like Mann’s hit television series Miami Vice, Manhunter wasn’t a hit at the time of its release but it has since developed a strong following. The novel was adapted again in 2002 for a film directed by Brett Ratner and featuring Anthony Hopkins in his final turn as Dr. Lecter.
Maniac
Maniac was released in 1980 and it remains one of the most disturbing films of all time. The picture is about a delusional serial killer, played by Joe Spinell, stalking women on the streets of New York. It is a very violent picture with effects by renowned makeup artist Tom Savini that were ground breaking at the time. Because of its extreme gore, Maniac was protested by film critics and women’s organizations. Maniac has recently been remade with Elijah Wood in the main role. The following video is NSFW.
Misery
Adapted from the novel by Stephen King, a writer becomes stranded with an obsessive fan of his work. Kathy Bates’ performance is very frightening and the scene in which she teaches the writer a lesson is one of the most memorable moments in horror.
Mommie Dearest
Based on the bestselling memoir, Mommie Dearest depicts the abusive childhood of Christina Crawford at the hands of her mother, screen legend Joan Crawford. The film was not a success at the time of its release but it has since become a cult classic.
Monster
Monster is a dramatization about Aileen Wuornos, a Florida-based prostitute who became a serial killer. The film has an incredible performance by Charlize Theron as Wuornos and the film manages to strike a balance between empathizing with this woman and her horrible life while not overlooking her crimes.
Natural Born Killers
Based on an original screenplay by Quentin Tarantino and directed by Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers was perhaps the most controversial film of the 1990s. The film is a satire of media sensationalism and violence but it is criticized for being exactly what it was satirizing.
Play Misty For Me
Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut tells the story of a one night stand gone bad. Jessica Walter plays the deranged woman.
Psycho
The original Psycho is often cited as the first contemporary horror film. It is a movie that changed horror filmmaking by introducing the killer with a psychosis, paving the way for everything from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Silence of the Lambs but it also changed Hollywood filmmaking in general by violating a lot of norms about what kinds of subject matter could be dealt with and how it could be presented.
Red Dragon
Directed by Brett Ratner, this turned out better than expected. Red Dragon is much closer in style to Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs than Ridley Scott’s Hannibal or Michael Mann’s Manhunter and it features cameos from some familiar faces including Anthony Heald as Dr. Frederick Chilton.
Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Tarantino’s first film features of a cast of criminals, some more psychopathic than others. This remains one of Tarantino’s best films, as it is made with a focus and discipline that has wavered in later pictures.
Se7en
Director David Fincher has the distinction of directing two of the better serial killer films in American movies: Zodiac and Se7en. Although he had previously directed music videos for Madonna and Aerosmith and the feature film Alien 3, it was Se7en that introduced him to mainstream audiences and it remains among his best work.
The Silence of the Lambs
The Silence of the Lambs tells the story of an FBI trainee who gets involved in an investigation of a serial killer. Adapted from the novel by Thomas Harris, this is a great work of suspense and it introduced audiences to Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who is now regarded as one of the great cinematic villains.
Summer of Sam
Spike Lee’s dramatization of the Son of Sam killings in New York in 1977 focuses on a fictional group of young people and their families. The film is an interesting exploration of the ways fear can sweep people into hysteria.
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese’s film about a New York cabbie teetering on the edge of a psychotic episode has become a classic and the line “You talkin’ to me?” has become part of the national vocabulary.
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? is a story of sibling rivalry gone violent. Bette Davis performance in the title role is often cited as one of the great villains in film.
Zodiac
Zodiac is a dramatization of the investigation of the Zodiac Killer who terrorized the San Francisco area in the 1970s. This film puts a lot of police procedural television dramas to shame and it indulges the intricacies of actual police work.