Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now is driven by a crushing sense of emotional desolation. The phrase “psychic thriller,” which was used to market the film, is technically true, but misleading, given that psychics are normally used by directors as springboards for action set pieces or as agents for ushering forth the explicit arrival of ghosts. There are certainly ghosts in Don’t Look Now, and maybe even the kind that populate traditional horror stories, but the prevailing specters here are those that people come to know through disappointment or tragedy as allusions to things lost or desired, which have a way of suddenly opening mental portals to the past, and, in the case of this film and quite a bit of supernatural fiction, the future. Don’t Look Now suggests a ghost story that Faulkner may have written, as it offers characters who’re at the mercy of their streams of consciousness.
- 10/9/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
This post contains spoilers for "Don't Look Now" and "Hereditary."
"Don't Look Now" and "Hereditary" are films that stay with you long after viewing. Both feature vivid depictions of the ongoing effects of grief, but director Ari Aster makes a hard turn partway through his 2018 feature debut, veering into supernatural territory as the Graham family discover they've been targeted by the demon Paimon and his cult of followers. In "Don't Look Now," on the other hand, the occult elements, though undoubtedly there, are less overt. Director Nicolas Roeg told The Guardian in 2006:
"Grief can separate people. I've seen it happen. Even the closest, healthiest relationship can come undone through grief. People split up. Or there is a distancing. They can't help it. The fact is that grief doesn't comfort grief. It's just one of those hard facts."
As such, the director allows grief to dictate the horror throughout "Don't Look Now,...
"Don't Look Now" and "Hereditary" are films that stay with you long after viewing. Both feature vivid depictions of the ongoing effects of grief, but director Ari Aster makes a hard turn partway through his 2018 feature debut, veering into supernatural territory as the Graham family discover they've been targeted by the demon Paimon and his cult of followers. In "Don't Look Now," on the other hand, the occult elements, though undoubtedly there, are less overt. Director Nicolas Roeg told The Guardian in 2006:
"Grief can separate people. I've seen it happen. Even the closest, healthiest relationship can come undone through grief. People split up. Or there is a distancing. They can't help it. The fact is that grief doesn't comfort grief. It's just one of those hard facts."
As such, the director allows grief to dictate the horror throughout "Don't Look Now,...
- 2/18/2023
- by Joe Roberts
- Slash Film
Reviewed by Kevin Scott, More Horror.com
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
Written by: Daphne Du Maurier (Short Story), Allen Scott (Screenplay)
Cast: Donald Sutherland (John Baxter), Julie Christie (Laura Baxter), Hilary Mason (Heather), Clelia Matania (Wendy), Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter), Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter), Renato Scarpi (Inspector Longhi), Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo)
There’s a term for a spinoff hybrid of country music that I really can appreciate. “Countrypolitan” is the label used for country music with lush arrangements, maybe some horns and unconventional stringed instruments thrown in. A refined version of an elemental thing that was good on its own, but elevated while retaining the same beloved and established characteristics of its genre. The thing that is so great about “Countrypolitan” is that it gave some culture to the masses in a palatable way so that they almost didn’t know it. My Dad would...
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Directed by: Nicolas Roeg
Written by: Daphne Du Maurier (Short Story), Allen Scott (Screenplay)
Cast: Donald Sutherland (John Baxter), Julie Christie (Laura Baxter), Hilary Mason (Heather), Clelia Matania (Wendy), Nicholas Salter (Johnny Baxter), Sharon Williams (Christine Baxter), Renato Scarpi (Inspector Longhi), Massimo Serato (Bishop Barbarrigo)
There’s a term for a spinoff hybrid of country music that I really can appreciate. “Countrypolitan” is the label used for country music with lush arrangements, maybe some horns and unconventional stringed instruments thrown in. A refined version of an elemental thing that was good on its own, but elevated while retaining the same beloved and established characteristics of its genre. The thing that is so great about “Countrypolitan” is that it gave some culture to the masses in a palatable way so that they almost didn’t know it. My Dad would...
- 9/9/2014
- by admin
- MoreHorror
‘Nothing is what it seems’ is the main theme and much quoted line from this 1973 classic horror. In fact is it even a horror? It could easily be a psychological thriller or a drama dealing with grief and love. Though released in the same year as The Exorcist, it is Nic Roeg’s adaptation of a Daphne du Maurier short story that is often cited as the film that revolutionised the genre into an intelligent form.
Roeg stepped into this film barefooted, after slipping off a pair of other great reinventions in Performance and Walkabout; yet many critics say these earlier films were his better work and the type he should have continued to produce. I disagree. It was the enigma and the sense of nothing truly being what you experienced in Don’t Look Now that makes it Roeg’s finest venture into the cinematic arts. Furthermore, because this...
Roeg stepped into this film barefooted, after slipping off a pair of other great reinventions in Performance and Walkabout; yet many critics say these earlier films were his better work and the type he should have continued to produce. I disagree. It was the enigma and the sense of nothing truly being what you experienced in Don’t Look Now that makes it Roeg’s finest venture into the cinematic arts. Furthermore, because this...
- 6/24/2011
- Shadowlocked
Actress Linda Hamilton is convinced ex-husband James Cameron will leave his wife one day - because he always wants what he can't have.
The Terminator star embarked on a relationship with the filmmaker in the early 1990s and the pair had a daughter together before marrying in 1997.
They split just eight months later when Cameron rekindled a previous relationship with Suzy Amis, who starred in his movie Titanic.
And Hamilton has a stark warning for the actress, who wed Cameron in 2000.
She tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "The woman he can't get is always his dream girl.
"It's interesting because while he was making Titanic, Suzy at that time was the gargoyle on the end of my bed, waiting to swoop in.
"Now I'm the gargoyle on her bed because for Jim, the one who doesn't end up with him is always the one he wants. I'm the one who got away, and she has to live with that."
Cameron has been married five times - to Hamilton and Amis, as well as to Sharon Williams, Gale Anne Hurd and Kathryn Bigelow.
The Terminator star embarked on a relationship with the filmmaker in the early 1990s and the pair had a daughter together before marrying in 1997.
They split just eight months later when Cameron rekindled a previous relationship with Suzy Amis, who starred in his movie Titanic.
And Hamilton has a stark warning for the actress, who wed Cameron in 2000.
She tells Britain's Daily Mail newspaper, "The woman he can't get is always his dream girl.
"It's interesting because while he was making Titanic, Suzy at that time was the gargoyle on the end of my bed, waiting to swoop in.
"Now I'm the gargoyle on her bed because for Jim, the one who doesn't end up with him is always the one he wants. I'm the one who got away, and she has to live with that."
Cameron has been married five times - to Hamilton and Amis, as well as to Sharon Williams, Gale Anne Hurd and Kathryn Bigelow.
- 2/5/2010
- WENN
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