Villains

Year 15, Day 73 - 3/14/23 - Movie #4,374

BEFORE: Kyra Sedgwick carries over from "Endings, Beginnings", which was the ending of the romance chain and the beginning of...well, something else. ANYTHING else, please - can I get to an Irish film in four days?  Of course - can I get to an Easter film in 27 steps?  Sure thing!  Can I get to a bunch of documentaries and then three films for Mother's Day?  Here's hoping...  But to do this, I have to use a film that was on my "horror" list to make a link here - I'm honestly not sure if this is a horror film, just going by the description on IMDB, which isn't always that accurate. True horror films belong in October, of course, unless I need them to make a critical connection at some other time, then allowances need to be mader. 

It's Day 14 of TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming, and today's themes are "Swashbucklers" (before 8 pm) and "Foreign" (8 pm and after). Here's the line-up: 

6:00 am "The Flame and the Arrow" (1960)

7:30 am "The Adventures of Don Juan" (1948)

9:30 am "The Prisoner of Zenda" (1937)

11:15 am "The Spanish Main" (1945)

1:15 pm "The Sea Hawk" (1940)

3:30 pm "Captain Blood" (1935)

5:45 pm "The Three Musketeers" (1948)

8:00 pm "La Strada" (1956)

10:00 pm "Day for Night" (1973)

12:15 am "Cries and Whispers" (1972)

2:00 am "All About My Mother" (1999)

4:00 am "Three Colors: Red" (1994)

6:00 am "Rashomon" (1950)

Shoot, I've only seen three of these - "The Sea Hawk", "Captain Blood" and "Cries and Whispers", because I've done chains for Errol Flynn and Ingmar Bergman.  I've got "The Prisoner of Zenda" and "All About My Mother" on my watchlist, but that means they haven't been, you know, watched just yet. Another 3 seen out of 13 brings me to 76 seen out of 159, so I'm down to 48%.

THE PLOT: After a pair of amateur criminals breaks into a suburban home, they stumble upon a dark secret that two sadistic homeowners will do anything to keep from getting out. 

AFTER: Well, I think I made the right call, it's not a HORROR horror film, like there's no vampires or demons or werewolves in it, but there are horrific things that take place when a couple that robs a gas station finds that their getaway car has run out of gas (Oh, if ONLY they had just been in a place that sold gas...) and they decide to break into the nearest house to steal either another car or siphon some gas.  

After breaking in, they get a little comfortable, however, and help themselves to some food - it's the middle of the day, the homeowners are probably at work or shopping or something.  Exploring the basement looking for a gas can and a hose, they find something unexpected, and it makes them wonder what kind of people live in this house. They soon find out when the couple comes home and have to deal with the strangers who broke in. 

Well, I guess there are bad people and worse people, and really, it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for, right?  The ones who appear normal, live in a quiet, secluded house upstate but who then really knows what kind of psychos they really are?  When we go driving through rural Long Island or Pennsylvania, we often see rundown houses or perhaps dilapidated sheds behind sketchy houses and we call them "murder shacks".  A couple of small-time thieves are really no match for two psychos masquerading as a normal couple, when the wife carries around a doll as if it's a real baby, and they seem a little too eager to tie trespassers up in the basement while they figure out what to do with them.  

The mind boggles, really, but you know whatever it is they have planned, it can't be good. Are they cannibals?  Just serial killers?  Or worse, are they into kinky sex stuff?  To their credit, the thieves try their best to do the "right thing", whatever that means at this point - when they probably should just be concerned with getting free.  

Maybe this is the 41 romance films I just watched talking, but this sure felt like a refreshing change of pace.  There was no formula here, just a set-up that created a situation that could have ended any number of horrible ways.  I'm OK with how it all shook down, I suppose it easily could have been a lot worse.  I think my horror chain will still be OK in October without this one, though it does connect to films like "R.I.P.D. 2" and "Blair Witch 2" via Jeffrey Donovan, and "Barbarian" via Bill Skarsgard, I think I'll be fine - there are other connections to be made. 

This film premiered four years ago at the SXSW Festival, which takes place, well, just about this time every year. One of my bosses just got back from attending that festival, and he talked about some of the very edgy films he saw there - yeah, that tracks, it's kind of a weird festival that sort of delights in showcasing non-standard, even bizarre festival fare.  This year there's a film that played there called "Bottoms" which is about sort of a lesbian fight club set in a high school, from the director of "Shiva Baby".  They also screened "John Wick 4", "Dungeons & Dragons" this year, and last year, it's the festival where "Everything Everywhere All at Once" premiered. 

Also starring Bill Skarsgard (last seen in "Eternals"), Maika Monroe (last seen in "I'm Not Here"), Blake Baumgartner, Jeffrey Donovan (last seen in "Lucy in the Sky"), Noah Robbins (last seen in "Miss Sloane"), Nikolas Kontomanolis, Danny Johnson.

RATING: 6 out of 10 sea shells sold by the sea shore