STEPHEN KING MASTERPIECES

THE SHINING (1980)

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

The film is based on the novel of the same name, by Stephen King. Unlike most films by Stanley Kubrick, which saw a slow gradual release building on word-of-mouth, The Shining was released in a manner more like a mass-market film, opening at first in just two cities on Memorial Day, and then a month later seeing a nationwide release (including drive-ins) after extensive television advertising. Kubrick considered both Robert De Niro and Robin Williams for the role of Jack Torrance but decided against both of them. Kubrick didn't think De Niro would suit the part after watching his performance in Taxi Driver (1976), as he deemed De Niro not psychotic enough for the role. There is a great deal of confusion regarding this film and the number of retakes of certain scenes. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the scene where Wendy is backing up the stairs swinging the baseball bat was shot 127 times, which is a record for the most takes of a single scene. Outtakes of the shots of the Volkswagen traveling towards the Overlook Hotel at the start of the film were plundered by Ridley Scott (with Stanley Kubrick's permission) when he was forced to add the 'happy ending' to the original release of Blade Runner (1982).
Despite receiving generally unfavorable reviews upon its initial release, the film is today regarded as one of the best horror movies ever made.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson, Novel: Stephen King
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers
Running Time: 142min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b726feAhdU

Rating: 10/10

THE DEAD ZONE (1983)

Christopher Walken wakes from a coma due to a car accident, only to find he has lost five years of his life, and yet gained psychic powers. Foreseeing the future appears to be a 'gift' at first, but ends up causing problems...

The Dead Zone was the first of several Stephen King novels and short stories that took place in the small town of Castle Rock. Others include Stand by Me (1986), Cujo (1983), The Dark Half (1993), and Needful Things (1993).According to a David Cronenberg interview on the DVD, the film was filmed during a relentless deep freeze which lasted for weeks, creating an authentic atmosphere of subzero temperatures and icy snow-packed terrain. There are several deleted scenes that were filmed and completed but have never been seen publicly and are thought to have been discarded prior to the film's release. This film (and Stephen King's novel) are both loosely based upon the life of famous psychic Peter Hurkos. Hurkos claimed to have acquired his alleged powers after falling off a ladder and hitting his head. The music soundtrack, composed by Michael Kamen, was recorded by The National Philharmonic Orchestra, London at the famous EMI Abbey Road Studios.

Director: David Cronenberg
Screenplay: Jeffrey Boam, Novel: Stephen King
Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen
Running Time: 103min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmC5oPc7L3M

Rating: 9/10

MISERY (1990)

Best-selling novelist Paul Sheldon is on his way home from his Colorado hideaway after completing his latest book, when he crashes his car in a freak blizzard. Paul is critically injured, but is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes, Paul's "number one fan", who takes Paul back to her remote house in the mountains...

The film received critical acclaim for Kathy Bates' performance as the psychopathic Annie Wilkes.
Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role and became the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Actress in a horror/thriller. Jack Nicholson was offered the role of Paul Sheldon but passed because he wasn't sure he wanted to do another movie based on one of Stephen King's novels after what he had experienced with Stanley Kubrick on The Shining. Stephen King was quite impressed with Kathy Bates's performance in this film, so much so that he later wrote to more roles for her. The title role in his novel Dolores Claiborne (1995) was written with Bates in mind.
As of 2010 this is the only Stephen King adaptation to receive an Academy Award.

Director: Rob Reiner
Screenplay: William Goldman, Novel: Stephen King
Starring: James Caan, Kathy Bates, Richard Farnsworth, Frances Sternhagen, Lauren Bacall
Running Time: 107min
Country: United States
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDoUpcOI-T8

Rating: 9/10

CRONENBERG'S SCI-FI HORROR MASTERPIECES

VIDEODROME (1983)

Set in Toronto during the early 80s, it follows the CEO of a small cable station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring extreme violence and torture. The signal causes brain tumors in viewers, and is revealed to have been developed by the government as part of a conspiracy...

The film has been described as a "disturbing techno-surrealist film". Andy Warhol called the movie the "A Clockwork Orange of the 1980s". David Cronenberg recalled how, when he was a child, he used to pick up pirate television signals from Buffalo, New York, late at night after Canadian stations had gone off the air, and how he used to worry he might see something disturbing not meant for public consumption. This formed the basis for the plot of Videodrome. Videodrome pioneered the flicker-eliminating technology used to film a television screen's images; before, film images were superimposed onto blank television screens. Videodrome's cult film status has made it a popular source for sampling and homage in Electro-industrial, EBM, and heavy metal music.
In 2009, Universal Studios announced that it had obtained the rights to produce a remake, with a possible 2011 release.

Director: David Cronenberg
Writter: David Cronenberg
Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson
Running Time: 89min
Country: Canada
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPGszmU1egQ&feature=related

Rating: 9,5/10

THE FLY (1986)

Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist attempts to woo investigative journalist Veronica Quaife by offering her a scoop on his latest research in the field of matter transportation, which against all the expectations of the scientific establishment have proved successful. Up to a point. Brundle thinks he has ironed out the last problem when he successfully transports a living creature, but when he attempts to teleport himself a fly enters one of the transmission booths, and Brundle finds he is a changed man...

The film is a remake of the 1958 film of the same name, but retains only the basic premise of a scientist accidentally merging with a housefly during a teleportation experiment. Despite being a gory remake of a classic made by a controversial, non-mainstream director, the film was a huge commercial success, the biggest of Cronenberg's career, and was the top-grossing film in the United States for two weeks. Make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, who won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. The inspiration for the design of the telepods came from the shape of the cylinder in director David Cronenberg's vintage Ducati motorcycle. Some critics saw the film as a metaphor for the AIDS epidemic.
A sequel followed in 1989 entitled The Fly II.

Director: David Cronenberg
Writters: Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg, Story: George Langelaan
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz
Running Time: 95min
Country: Canada
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BTPOlbW-Cc

Rating: 9,5/10

SCANNERS (1981)

Darryl Revok is the most powerful of all the scanners, and is the head of the underground scanner movement for world domination. Scanners have great psychic power, strong enough to control minds; they can inflict enormous pain/damage on their victims. Doctor Paul Ruth finds a scanner that Revok hasn't, and converts him to their cause - to destroy the underground movement...

The story is structured as a futuristic thriller, involving industrial espionage and intrigue, car chases, conspiracies, and shoot-outs. It was the nearest thing to a conventional sci-fi thriller Cronenberg had made up to that point, lacking the sexual content of Shivers, Rabid, or The Brood; it was also his most profitable film until The Fly six years later. Master make-up artist Dick Smith (The Exorcist) provided the prosthetic make-up effects for the often-cited exploding head and the climactic scanner duel. The effect was made by filling a prosthetic head with dog food and rabbit livers, and shooting it from behind with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Scanners spawned sequels [Scanners II: The New Order (1991), Scanners III: The Takeover (1992)] and a series of spin-offs; [Scanner Cop (1994), Scanners: The Showdown (a.k.a. Scanner Cop II) (1995)]; a remake was announced in 2007, but as of 2010 has not been put into production. None of these projects have involved Cronenberg as director.

Director: David Cronenberg
Writter: David Cronenberg
Starring: Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan
Running Time: 103min
Country: Canada
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6GNs6MthtU&feature=related

Rating: 9/10

LONG LIVE THE 70's! (1)

DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)

Don't Look Now tells the story of a couple, Laura (Julie Christie) and John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) whose young daughter has recently drowned in a tragic accident at home. Their grief puts a sudden pressure on their marriage.
Seeking a change of scenery and an opportunity to work through their loss, they take a "working vacation" to Venice, where John has been contracted to restore an ancient church. While John attends to this project Laura is befriended by two strange elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to be in psychic contact with the Baxters' dead daughter. Laura is drawn to the sisters, but John finds their influence on her unsettling and suspects them of deceit. The ensuing drama is set against a subplot involving a serial killer who has eluded the police. John catches glimpses of a child-like figure in red raingear who resembles his dead daughter, although the figure vanishes whenever John pursues it. He begins to question his own sanity and that of his wife as Laura appears to be completely under the command of the sisters, who in turn suggest that John shares their gift of a "second sight"...

Director: Nicolas Roeg
Producer: Peter Katz
Writter: Screenplay:Allan Scott, Chris Bryant, Story: Daphne du Maurier
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
Running Time: 110min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYICwstBwnM

Rating: 10/10


THE TENANT (1976)
(French: Le Locataire)

Trelkowski (Polanski), a quiet and inconspicuous man, rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant, Simone Choule, attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself out of the window and through a pane of glass. He goes to visit her in the hospital, but finds her all bandaged up and unable to talk; she instead lets out a disturbing cry upon seeing him before she dies afterwards. Trelkowski meets Simone's friend, Stella (Adjani), at the hospital. He tries to comfort her but dares not say that he never knew Simone, pretending instead to be another friend of hers. They leave together and go out for a drink and a Bruce Lee movie Enter The Dragon, where they fondle each other. However outside the theater they part ways.
As Trelkowski occupies the apartment he is soon unreasonably chastised by his neighbors and his landowner Monsieur Zy (Douglas) for hosting a party with his friends, making too much noise in general, not joining in on a petition against another neighbor, etc. Trelkowski attempts to adapt, but is himself disturbed by the frequent sight of his neighbors standing blankly in the toilet room (which he can see from his own window) and the discovery of a hole in his apartment with a human tooth stashed inside...

Director: Roman Polanski
Producer: Hercules Bellville
Writter: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, Novel: Roland Topor
Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet
Running Time: 125min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmhIMbdecEU

Rating: 10/10


THE CHANGELING (1980)

The story is based upon events experienced by writer Russell Hunter while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion of Denver, Colorado.

Scott stars as Dr. John Russell, a composer living in New York City, who moves cross-country to Washington state following the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburbanSeattle, Russell rents a large, old, and eerie-looking Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together. However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home when a poltergeist, the ghost of a murdered child, haunts the house...

Director: Peter Medak
Producer: Chessman Park Productions, Tiberius Film Productions
Writter: Russell Hunter, William Gray, Diana Maddox
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish VanDevere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos
Running Time: 115min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZDq8sK6a8

Rating: 9,5/10



THE BROOD (1979)

The Brood was named 88th on the "Chicago Film Critics Association's 100 Scariest Movies of All-Time". The film was Cronenberg's first major success.
A novelization was written by Richard Starks.

An unconventional psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) has created a technique called "psychoplasmics." He encourages his patients to "go all the way through it" and allow their negative emotions (rage, fear, etc.) to cause their bodies to undergo (usually radical) physical change. A man who was verbally abused by his father develops welts over his body as a way of expressing his pain. Another patient develops lymphatic cancer, supposedly a manifestation of his self-hatred. In the case of the principal characters, it causes a woman, Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar), to parthenogenetically birth strange, mutated children and, via a telepathic bond, have them act out whatever negative emotions the mother is feeling at the time...

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Heroux
Writter: David Cronenberg
Starring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
Running Time: 92min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSfZunKpRVM

Rating: 9/10

DAVID CRONENBERG

Bio-horror Mastermind

Cronenberg was born in Toronto (15/3/1943), Ontario, where he currently lives. He is the son of Esther, a musician, and Milton Cronenberg, a writer and editor. He was raised in a middle-class progressive Jewish family. Cronenberg attended Harbord Collegiate Institute, later graduating from University College, University of Toronto with a degree in literature, having switched from science. He has cited William S. Burroughs and Vladimir Nabokov as influences. He remains an atheist and does not believe in an afterlife.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

SHIVERS (1975)

Shivers filmed as Orgy of the Blood Parasites. Alternate titles: The Parasite Murders, They Came from Within, and Frissons for the French Canadian distribution

Producer: Ivan Reitman

Writter: David Cronenberg

Starring: Paul Hampton, Barbara Steele, Lynn Lowry, Joe Silver, Ronald Mlodzik, Fred Doederlin, Allan Migicovsky

Running time: 87min.

Rating: 7/10

RABID (1977)

Producer: John Dunning, Ivan Reitman

Writter: David Cronenberg

Starring: Marilyn Chambers, Frank Moore, Joe Silver, Howard Ryshpan, Patricia Gage, Susan Roman

Running time: 91min.

Rating: 7,5/10

THE BROOD (1979)

Producer: Claude Heroux

Writter: David Cronenberg

Starring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle, Harry Beckman

Running time: 92min.

Rating: 8,5/10

SCANNERS (1981)

Producer: Claude Héroux

Writter: David Cronenberg

Starring: Stephen Lack, Jennifer O'Neill, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan

Running time: 103min.

Rating: 8/10

VIDEODROME (1983)

Producer: Claude Héroux

Writter: David Cronenberg

Starring: James Woods, Deborah Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, Jack Creley

Running time: 89min.

Rating: 9,5/10

THE DEAD ZONE (1983)

Producer: Debra Hill

Writter: Novel: Stephen King, Screenplay: Jeffrey Boam

Starring: Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, Tom Skerritt, Martin Sheen

Running time: 103min.

Rating: 9/10

THE FLY (1986)

Producer: Stuart Cornfield, Mel Brooks (uncredited)

Writter: Short story: George Langelaan, Screenplay: Charles Edward Pogue, David Cronenberg

Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz

Running time: 95min.

Rating: 10/10

DEAD RINGERS (1988)

Producer: Marc Boyman, David Cronenberg

Writter: Novel: Bari Wood, Jack Geasland, Screenplay: David Cronenberg, Norman Snider

Starring: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold

Running time: 116min.

Rating: 8.5/10