CAGED HEAT – Jonathan Demme made this influential WIP film for Roger Corman. Anyone expecting an endless parade of boobs behind bars will meet with something a bit more abstract as ‘Caged Heat’ simmers with swirly seventies hippie art film vibes as much as with exploitative potboiling. There are dreamy bits and there are grim bits (forced ECT) before it finally breaks out into runaway shenanigans with cons versus cops. Very good, in part because of era-specific genre faces such as Barbara Steel.
PEARL – Starstruck farmgirl in twenties Texas heads towards the realisation that she’s better at murdering people than wowing them onstage. Much touted backstory to ‘X’ by Ti West, but probably owned by writer / star Mia Goth, whose performance is as mesmerising as reported. There are many other highs; if the hilarious ‘X-factor’ pisstake doesn't tickle your fancy, please refer to aforementioned scarecrow roistering. Highly recommended and destined for my end of year top three list (and maybe yours too).
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE – This seems almost universally regarded as one of the most disposable ANOES films. It’s not amazing, but it’s at least entertaining (to my easily pleased eyes). It doesn’t do anything with ‘the mythos’ or Kruger and it certainly doesn’t extend Craven’s work in any interesting direction, being content to simply roll along leaving a trail of pleasant FX-laden dreck broken up by bits of dramatic stupidity and nonsense eighties set-pieces. I’m OK with that. The subtext about sexuality seems deliberate but stillborn – maybe the makers just thought “it’s got dreams in it, there’s got to be some Freudian shit going on somewhere”. Yeah well I can go on about that stuff all day but ultimately I’m more into seeing a burned undead serial killer’s face burst its way through someone’s chest. I’m a bit shallow like that.
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