Posts by Chris Justice

No film captures the anxieties of an entire decade of American history better than Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Shot in only 23 days at a cost of roughly $420,000, Invasion is based on a Jack Finney serial story published in Colliers Magazine in 1954. A year later, the novel "The Body Snatchers" was released; a year after, the film, which Walter Wanger produced, emerged as one of the best sci-fi thrillers of the 1950s.(read more...)

Many peaks and valleys punctuate John Carpenter's directorial career. The peaks are capped with classics such as Halloween (1978) and The Thing (1982); underachievers such as Ghost of Mars (2001) and They Live (1988) haunt the valleys. In the Mouth of Madness is a film that struggles for a place in either category. While by no means a failure, the film is far from a success.(read more...)

Writing a review lauding the merits of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is like writing an essay on why breathing is important. Or better yet, why sex feels good. Talk about begging the question. Anyone who watches Psycho brings his or her own insights, cinematic IQ, prejudices, fears, and collective memories into the interpretation. And like any classic film, Psycho resonates with new meaning every time one watches it. Perceptions change, interpretations mutate, and assumptions evolve. If one goal of a good film review is to recreate the experience of watching the film, then reviewing Psycho is the equivalent of reveling in cinematic ecstasy. So beware, here comes the swoon.(read more...)

One of Hollywood's most endearing strengths is its ability to survive its own cannibalistic impulses. While film is certainly not the first medium to successfully criticize itself, Hollywood's cadre of horror filmmakers have been particularly effective in using self-deprecation and self-parody to pave new artistic paths. Although Peter Bogdanovich is no monolith in the horror genre, as an actor, director, critic, film editor, screenwriter, film historian, author, and general cinephile, his shadow transcends the horror clique. Like all good auteurs, Bogdanovich doesn't restrict himself to one genre; his one great foray into horror, Targets, released in 1968, reveals an acute sense of the genre's history and future. More importantly, he is keenly aware of the relationship between the two.(read more...)